Shivakumar’s day out: Congress plans massive outreach for KPCC President

In a massive outreach effort, the Congress plans to touch at least one crore people on July 2 when its newly-appointed president D K Shivakumar will take formal charge.

A lot is riding on this event for Shivakumar: His formal coronation as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president will be a show of strength for a faction-ridden party and a war cry from a leader who appears determined to show his detractors that he may be politically bloodied, but is indefatigable as he leads the Congress into the next Assembly elections. After all, his appointment came while his detractors began writing his political epitaph following his 50-day incarceration last year in connection with alleged money laundering.

The party’s social media wing is exploring all options to ensure Shivakumar’s coronation - Pratigna Dina (Day of Oath) - is streamed live on as many platforms as possible. The event, which will be streamed live across 7,831 locations in the state, will also be shown on the personal social media accounts of some top 30 Congress leaders, according to sources.

While Shivakumar will take charge as the party president in the party’s Bengaluru headquarters, party workers across the state will join him simultaneously in lighting a lamp, singing Vande Mataram and reading the Constitution’s preamble. Only 150 leaders have been invited to attend the event in Bengaluru. It is scheduled to start at 10.45 am and conclude at around 1 pm.

In the run-up to the big event, the party already has a missed call campaign. Over one lakh missed calls have been received and another two lakh are expected. All of them will get a link to view the event via SMS. Also, the event’s link will be sent via WhatsApp to some two lakh numbers, sources said.

Shivakumar belongs to the powerful Vokkaliga community. The last Vokkaliga to head Karnataka Congress was S M Krishna, who steered the party to victory in the 1999 Assembly polls. With the other dominant community, Lingayats, seen to be backing Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, the Congress will look at Shivakumar to consolidate the Vokkaligas in the party’s favour.

But Shivakumar is expected to face tougher challenges from within, especially from factions that tried to block his appointment as KPCC president. For long now, Shivakumar is known to have a no-love-lost relationship with Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah. Their camaraderie will be key going forward, party observers say.