Rahul asks state leaders not to show laxity

Tipped to take over as Congress president soon, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday told party leaders from Karnataka not to show any laxity in preparing for the high-stakes Assembly polls next year which would set the tone for the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Rahul met top leaders from the state including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC president G Parameshwara, working presidents Dinesh Gundu Rao and S R Patil besides veterans Mallikarjun Kharge and M Veerappa Moily.

Picking up a leaf from the BJP strategy, Rahul asked the state leaders to focus on booth- level committees and directed them to reach out to every voter in every household across the state.

State leaders told Rahul that booth-level committees have been formed in 51,000 of the total 54,000 booths across the state.

AICC general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka, K C Venugopal has been asked to keep track of the developments and ensure that there is no laxity in the implementation of the election strategy.

With the economic slowdown and faulty implementation of the GST exposing the chinks in the BJP’s armour, the Congress has sensed an opportunity to better its performance in the upcoming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka.

Emerging out of the meeting, Parameshwara told reporters that the “roadmap” for the 2018 Assembly elections was discussed in detail. On the issue of delay in distribution of tickets to candidates, he said, “We discussed all this in the meeting. This is part of our strategy. We do it as per our convenience”.

He said there were no differences between him and Siddaramaiah and the 2018 Assembly polls will be contested under Siddaramaiah’s leadership.