The Congress party in Karnataka, which is still recovering from the drubbing it faced in the Lok Sabha polls where it won a lone seat out of the 21 seats it had contested, will undergo a total revamp in the party structure.
The All India Congress Committee on Wednesday dissolved the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) while retaining only party president Dinesh Gundu Rao and working president Eshwar Khandre.
The announcement of the dissolution by AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal comes a day after the party suspended rebel MLA R. Roshan Baig for "anti-party" activities.
"The AICC president has given his approval for a revamp. There will be changes in the district and block levels too,” said Rao.
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While some party leaders insist that there is nothing unusual about the revamp, the sudden move indicates that the party is gearing up for a change in the old guard and infuse new blood.
Rao, who took charge as the new president in July 2018, was supposed to choose his new team. But he had to put it off due to elections and the office-bearers appointed during his predecessor and Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara's tenure were retained. However, the infighting and open revolt by senior leaders, and the JD(S)-Congress alliance bagging only one seat each in the Lok Sabha polls have prompted the high command to call for an overhaul.
The revamping of KPCC, which has more than 250 office bearers posts at the state level, will see appointment of new faces and perhaps scaling down the size of the "jumbo" committee, too, as some leaders put it.
The move is a stern warning to all senior leaders to fall in line as the exercise is also intended to weed out non-performers, while rewarding party loyalists.
The Lok Sabha polls debacle has been a shocker to the party since it reflected a total collapse of the party structure as the Congress lost even the constituencies which they previously held.
While, it was being speculated that Rao would be replaced owing to the party's poor performance in the polls, insiders say that Rao managed to retain the post as he had the backing of former chief minister Siddaramaiah. Other top contenders for the post including Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who was camping in Delhi, failed to impress the high command. In fact, Shivakumar's proximity to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, besides his reputation as a master strategist was expected to work in his favour as the Congress is keen that the coalition government survives. However, the high command seems to have thought it is wise to retain a more amicable leader like Rao to lead the party, as Shivakumar's elevation might not go down well with Siddaramaiah.
The coalition in the state is on a rough patch owing to the differences between the JD(S) and Siddaramaiah, who is heading the coordination committee. It remains to be seen if the party calls for a revamp of the coordination committee, too, as the panel is now left with only four members (Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy, Parameshwar and K.C. Venugopal) after Danish Ali quit the JD(S) to fight the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh on a BSP ticket. JD(S) state president A.H. Vishwanath, who resigned from his post recently, has insisted that the party presidents of both the coalition partners should be taken onboard to implement the common minimum programme.
