Congress targets 20 seats in Lok Sabha from Karnataka: KPCC working president

I.N.D.I.A will come to power and Rahul Gandhi will become Prime Minister, he said.

As preparation for the Lok Sabha elections, the AICC will appoint a minister and a senior party leader from Karnataka to each Lok Sabha constituency as party observers to collect opinions from the party workers on the potential candidates, said KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed.

The Congress targets to win 20 seats including Dakshina Kannada and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru in Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka, he told mediapersons after attending district-level Congress executive committee meeting at Congress Bhavana in Mangaluru.

He said, “We have requested to announce the candidates at least six months prior to the polls. We are working towards the same. The list of party observers to each constituency will be released by the AICC shortly.”

“I.N.D.I.A will come to power and Rahul Gandhi will become Prime Minister. The Congress workers will reach out to the people on the failure of the Narendra Modi-led government in the last nine and a half years in depositing Rs 15 lakh to accounts, generating two crore employment annually, doubling the income of the farmers, rise in price of petroleum, and LPG for the next six months. Our strategies to fight the election in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi will also be changed as the party will give special emphasis to both the districts. We will also organise the party at the booth level to strengthen it further. We are confident in people wanting a change. People have trust in the Congress,” he said.

To a query on poaching of MLAs from BJP and JD(S), Salim Ahmed said, "We will not engage in an operation like 'Operation Lotus'. The party has a clear majority with 136 MLAs to give a strong and stable government in Karnataka for the next five years. Many leaders from the BJP and JD(S) have approached us. The High Command will take a call on allowing them to join the party.”

The Congress is waiting for the taluk panchayat and zilla panchayat elections. The BJP is only engaged in criticising the guarantee schemes. Within 90 days of coming to power in Karnataka, the Congress has implemented four guarantee schemes. The Yuva Nidhi will be implemented in December. The BJP is scared of our guarantee schemes," he said.

Further, Ahmed said that the BJP has failed to appoint opposition leaders in the assembly. "Opposition is considered as a shadow cabinet that highlights the failure of the government. People are watching their acts closely," he said.