<p class="title">Top Congress leaders on Tuesday held a brain-storming session to plan out the party’s strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The meeting came on a day when politics in Karnataka was volatile amid claims by the BJP that it would stake claim to form government in the state if the JD(S)-Congress coalition government collapsed on its own. Though the Karnataka situation did not come up for discussion, a view in the Congress is that the BJP was using the Karnataka situation to send a message to Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan that are dependent on support of smaller parties and independent MLAs for survival.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Congress has issued detailed instructions to its state units to fill up vacant posts in block and district committees and also identify probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">State units have also been asked to prepare state-specific chargesheets against the BJP, which could be handy to target the Modi government on issues particular to a region.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who chairs the manifesto committee, is expected to wrap up his nationwide consultations by February 1 and begin the actual task of drafting the party’s manifesto for the elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Congress leaders had fanned across the country to interact with intellectuals, farmers, businessmen, students to elicit their views for the manifesto.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“We have held consultations in almost all the states. Consultations are pending in Arunachal Pradesh and Goa,” a Congress functionary said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The party manifesto will be released closer to the Lok Sabha elections and is expected to include a blueprint for an alternative to the BJP’s much-touted Gujarat model of development.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Congress leaders who are part of the nine-member core group include former defence minister A K Antony, treasurer Ahmed Patel, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jairam Ramesh.</p>
<p class="title">Top Congress leaders on Tuesday held a brain-storming session to plan out the party’s strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The meeting came on a day when politics in Karnataka was volatile amid claims by the BJP that it would stake claim to form government in the state if the JD(S)-Congress coalition government collapsed on its own. Though the Karnataka situation did not come up for discussion, a view in the Congress is that the BJP was using the Karnataka situation to send a message to Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan that are dependent on support of smaller parties and independent MLAs for survival.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Congress has issued detailed instructions to its state units to fill up vacant posts in block and district committees and also identify probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">State units have also been asked to prepare state-specific chargesheets against the BJP, which could be handy to target the Modi government on issues particular to a region.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who chairs the manifesto committee, is expected to wrap up his nationwide consultations by February 1 and begin the actual task of drafting the party’s manifesto for the elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Congress leaders had fanned across the country to interact with intellectuals, farmers, businessmen, students to elicit their views for the manifesto.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“We have held consultations in almost all the states. Consultations are pending in Arunachal Pradesh and Goa,” a Congress functionary said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The party manifesto will be released closer to the Lok Sabha elections and is expected to include a blueprint for an alternative to the BJP’s much-touted Gujarat model of development.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Congress leaders who are part of the nine-member core group include former defence minister A K Antony, treasurer Ahmed Patel, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jairam Ramesh.</p>
