Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, set a target of 150 seats for his party in 2023 assembly elections in Karnataka.
Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to the state, while addressing the party leaders and workers at the state Congress office, reminded them that their “biggest responsibility” was to put up a “united fight” to ensure a clear victory in the polls.
“I am very clear about a couple of things, going forward. First, we should not aim to win this election with a close margin but work towards winning getting not less than 150 (out of the 224) seats. It is not a difficult task for the Congress party if we get together and fight united, on right issues and guarantee merit as the criteria for our candidates, leaders and workers,” said Gandhi.
Taking the names of senior leaders – CLP leader Siddaramaih, KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar and leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Gandhi said, “I have known you all as I spent considerable time with you during the last elections. I know you people are already doing it, but you need to do it with more force. I feel your biggest responsibility is to put up a united fight and ensure that the party wins more than 150 seats.”
Elaborating on his three principles to win elections, Gandhi said, “We should not fight to make it a close election, but to ensure decisive victory for the party. We should take decisions based on merit of the person. We must reward people who work for the party and defend the party and fight loyally for the party. It goes without saying we need to reward our workers and assure them that when the Congress party comes to power in Karnataka, we will work on issues that were fought for by our party workers. We will reward the party worker who gave his blood and tears for the party.”
Hinting at a possible overhaul within the party and inducting of young party workers in key positions, Gandhi said, “I feel it is important to promote people based on the service they have done for the party. I don’t think we should be promoting people based on the likes and dislikes. Today, it is very easy to find out who is actually doing work and who is not. We have people who have actively enrolled new members via Zoom and we know who is delivering results. We should be absolutely ruthless with this idea. I don’t think we should decide tickets based on past history or on what a person has done 20 years ago. We should give tickets to persons working for the party today. If a person is loyal and hardworking, the party should ensure that person is protected, rewarded and given the right position.
Reminding his party men that Karnataka always had the spirit of the Congress, he said, “Karnataka is a natural Congress state. We need to be very clear that the current BJP government is not a government elected legitimately but made using ‘financial resources’.”
Calling unemployment the biggest challenge facing the country today, Ganhdi said, “The country’s economy has collapsed. Inflation and unemployment have increased due to the Modi government’s demonetisation, flawed GST and farm bills. Today, even if the Modi government wants to give jobs to the youth, there are no jobs as BJP has destroyed the small and medium businesses, which were job creators. The country will continue to suffer losses.”
Claiming that the BJP had lost its right to speak on corruption, Gandhi said, “Now, BJP cannot speak on the corruption (during elections) as they have set a poor record. Modi used to speak about corruption during every election. But today, if Modi comes to Karnataka and speaks about corruption, especially when the state government is believed to be ‘40 per cent sarkar’, the entire state will laugh at him. The BJP’s main focus has been to snatch money from the poor and put it into the hands of a few industrialists. This is a financial transfer mechanism. The strategy is to divide the society – what we call as polarisation. They make people of different castes and religion fight among each other. Our responsibility is to focus on the real and necessary issues and talk about employment, economic growth, unite people. Their job is to divide people and spread hatred in the society. Our job is to unite the people,” said Gandhi listing the possible election issues that the Congress party should pick on.
Lauding the Karnataka Congress, Gandhi said, “The state president Shivakumar informed me that 60 lakh new members have been enrolled so far. I know it is no small feat. Many of these members are young and have come in with new ideas. In this election we need to focus on youth and women and bring them to the forefront, while giving tickets. We need to give Karnataka a new Congress party that fights on real issues and unites people and exposes BJP’s lies before the people.”
Gandhi said the previous Congress governments both in the state and at the Centre, had done good work. “The Congress party’s record in governance has been good. We need to tell people what were our achievements and what we intend to do in future.”
Stating that there was very little time left for the polls, Gandhi said he was confident that his party would win Karnataka with a clear majority and with more than 150 seats. “We will form such a government that will work for the poor, oppressed, small and medium traders and will bring the state on the right track.”
Earlier, both Kharge and Siddaramaiah had expressed their disappointment over the party failing to take a clear stand on issues that affect the Congress voters.
“When the minorities and the oppressed classes are in trouble, we need to rush to their rescue. It is the Congress ideology to stand with the poor, minorities, dalits and farmers at any cost. If we do it no one can stop us from coming back to power. They are the people who have always supported the Congress,” said Kharge.
“As the Karnataka polls are nearing the BJP raking up more and more communal issues to divide people and polarise the votes. The BJP always goes against the principles of the Constitution. It brought cow slaughter ban, which was unnecessary. Then, it brought the anti-conversion bill, followed by hijab issue, Bhagavad Gita in schools and halal meat issue. All these go against our Constitution. The hijab issue could have been resolved amicably by the government. But the government allowed Sangh Parivar to flare up and paint Muslims as villains. Congress should be aggressive if we have to safeguard secularism. We cannot afford to remain silent as it is not a matter of appeasement (of minorities) but a question of safeguarding secularism and the Constitution values,” said Siddaramaiah.
