Fifty member Karnataka Congress team to fly to Delhi for Lok Sabha strategic meet

BENGALURU: In what is likely to be a day without key state government ministers being in Karnataka, a team of 50 leaders including chief minister Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, senior ministers and Congress party office bearers along with senior party leaders will be heading to Delhi for a crucial meet over preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, likely changes in the KPCC office bearers position and ministers “pep talk” with AICC leader Rahul Gandhi.

According to Congress leaders, the party high command is scheduled to hold two separate meetings with senior leaders of the KPCC for LS polls strategy meeting and another with Rahul Gandhi wanting to meet the Karnataka ministers and taking stock of the five poll guarantees implementation.
It is said the high command will also deliberate a change in the party leadership, barring KPCC president post for DK Shivakumar, keeping in mind the LS polls.

“We expect the party will be going for the one man, one post policy with certain exceptions,” said one senior party leader.
While the first strategic meeting is scheduled at 3 pm, it is expected to be two and half hours long, the second will be held later in the night.
“The meeting is expected to see responsibilities being distributed for the Lok Sabha polls to various leaders in the party and also build consensus towards projecting a united front in the state,” said another leader.
Earlier in the day, DyCM Shivakumar spoke to the media and said there are going to be 50 key leaders from the state unit who will be attending the meeting in Delhi on Wednesday. The official list of invitees include 32 people for the meeting with the high command.
“Barring the ministers and KPCC office bearers, we have also invited senior party leaders and MPs to attend the meeting,” said Shivakumar.
It is said the invitation has been extended to the likes of R V Deshpande, B K Hariprasad and K R Ramesh Kumar to attend the strategic meet.
Shivakumar said the meetings will also see the high command give fresh direction to the government’s approach to capitalize on the five poll guarantees apart from asking the district in-charge ministers to start campaigning for the parliament elections.
The Congress high command is said to have scheduled a series of meetings with other state leaderships to prepare for the LS polls.