KPCC president D K Shivakumar said on Tuesday that the party leaders had to gear up to face the coming local body elections in the state.
He was speaking at the death anniversary programme of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi organised at the KPCC office here.
Shivakumar said the party was committed to providing opportunities to its vast worker base by holding elections to local bodies for gram, taluk and zilla panchayats across the state as well as to urban local bodies like Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.
"No election is small or big. Many leaders, such as Pandit Nehru, Rajagopalachari, Kengal Hanumanthaiah, B D Jatti and Mallikarjun Kharge started their political careers through local body elections and achieved many big feats in their times,” he said.
Cautioning his party workers and leaders, Shivakumar, also deputy chief minister, said that the time had come for the party to dissolve all the cells and wings of the party. This is because many leaders had failed to live up to the expectations.
"Those who are inactive and failed to get the lead for the party in their respective booths in the elections will be dropped,” he said.
Shivakumar said that gone are the days when wearing a crisp white kurta and deboarding from plush cars meant getting the party's ticket. Now, it is time to reward those working hard for the party’s growth in their booths, he added.
Shivakumar, who also completed four years as KPCC president, said he does not know how long he would continue in this position. He said his priority is to set up a formidable party machinery at the grassroots level. “The next four months will be challenging for everyone and we will bring in a new system which will help the grassroots-level leaders grow,” he said.
Lashing out at UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s statement that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi travels abroad whenever there is a crisis in the country, Shivakumar said the BJP will be defeated in this election and Adithyanath will have to take sanyas again.
"Our leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi sacrificed power for the country. Being a sanyasi, he has not done so,” he said.