Bengaluru| Congress has returned to power in Karnataka with a clear mandate. The Congress reaped the benefits of its precise campaign in the southern state and the five promises made to the people of the state. Party leaders said this here on Saturday. Voting for the 224-member Karnataka Assembly took place on May 10 after the Congress mounted a spirited campaign in which five top leaders played a key role.
From the party’s election manifesto to its aggressive campaign, all the points highlighted by Congress immediately caught the attention of the people of the southern state.
Yes. Parmeshwar, State Incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala, M.B. Patil, Shashikant Sethil and Sunil Kanungolu played a key role in ensuring the party’s massive victory.
In 2020, Surjewala was succeeded by Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Karnataka in charge was appointed in Venugopal’s place, while Patil, a powerful Lingayat leader, was made chairman of the campaign committee.
Party leaders also said that Patil was behind the contours of the aggressive campaign in the state with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge holding back-to-back public meetings and rallies and roadshows by former party chief Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
He also focused on door-to-door campaigning to woo voters, besides holding a public meeting of former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in the state after a gap of four years.
Patil is considered close to Siddaramaiah and earlier held several important portfolios in the state government.
Meanwhile, Parameshwara was made the chairman of the Manifesto, Policy and Vision Committee.
Congress became the talk of the town with the release of its election manifesto, as it promised to ban Bajrang Dal if voted to power.
The manifesto soon attracted public attention and was criticized in some circles.
Apart from the promise to ban Bajrang Dal, the party also announced four more important guarantees in its manifesto – ‘Griha Jyoti’ (200 units of free electricity), ‘Griha Lakshmi’ (monthly allowance of Rs 2,000 to each female head of the household ), ‘Anna Bhagya’ (10 kg food grains of choice to each person in a BPL household) and free travel for women in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses.
The manifesto also had something for different regions of the state, such as the coastal region, where the party was expected to garner more seats than in previous elections.
The party’s ’40 percent commission government campaign also struck a chord with those putting the Bajrang Dal vs Bajrang Bali debate on the back burner.
In the 2018 elections, the BJP won 104 seats, the Congress 80, and the JD(S) 37. BJP’s B.S. Yediyurappa formed the government but resigned before the floor test. Then, the Congress and the JD(S) formed a coalition government that lasted just 14 months, after which 16 MLAs defected to the BJP, leading to the fall of the government and bringing the BJP back to power.
However, this time the Congress won 136 seats in the southern state, while the BJP and JD(S) had to be content with 65 and 19 seats, respectively.
