JOIN USForget work, focus on elections, Parameshwara tells ministers
Almost the entire council of ministers had descended on the KPCC office on Queen’s Road on Tuesday to chalk out a strategy for the BBMP elections.
State Congress president G Parameshwara had convened a meeting with the ministers who are also acting as the party observers for each of the 28 Assembly constituencies. The ministers are learnt to have apprised the president on the party’s prospects in their constituencies and discussed issues that need to be sorted out before the elections.
Sources said the party was planning to release its first list of candidates on August 6, when the first meeting of the screening committee is scheduled to be held. The committee will be headed by Parameshwara and comprises Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, ministers from Bengaluru and some senior party leaders. The panel is likely to announce candidates for about 100 wards, including those represented by the party corporators in the recently-dissolved BBMP council.
Sources said many of the observers, appointed to sift through the applications seeking party tickets, had already submitted their reports. The observers had been tasked with holding consultations with the block-level workers and shortlisting names of probable candidates. The party has received about 1,300 applications seeking tickets to contest the polls, the sources said.
The KPCC chief is learnt to have directed all the observers to submit the reports by Wednesday evening. The party has taken the elections seriously. All ministers have been told to shelve their work and focus on the polls in the constituencies assigned to them. Efforts should be made to ensure that the party activists work unitedly during the polls, Parameshwara is learnt to have said.
The ministers have been directed to camp in the constituency assigned to them till the elections are over. Five ministers from Bengaluru – Ramalinga Reddy, K J George, Roshan Baig, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Krishna Byre Gowda – have been told to coordinate with other ministers and ensure success of the party.
The KPCC has set up the manifesto committee to prepare a draft of the manifesto. Senior leaders K R Ramesh Kumar, B L Shankar, five ministers from Bengaluru are its members, the sources said.