Karnataka Cong finally chants unity mantra

Karnataka State Congress unit on Sunday launched “Join the Congress to bring the Changes” campaign in Bengaluru. It is aimed at strengthening the party from grassroots level and bringing home the unity among the stalwarts of the party.
 
“We in the Congress party want younger people to join the party, Also we want to strengthen our roots in the state. People of the state have suffered a lot under the maladministration of BJP in the last four years. They have fed up with the internal fights of ruling BJP and corruption that is ruling the roost under BJP regime. The people want the change. So we want to convey the people that Congress is the change which they are looking for” says H.K Patil, a senior Congress leader and former minister of state.

But this election centric campaign headed by KPCC president Dr Parameswar has not gone down well with the other senior leader and the leader of opposition in Assembly Siddaramaiah. He has reportedly differed the idea of launching the campaign when the major part of the state is suffering from the severe draught. He is of the opinion that the campaign may have an adverse impact on party.
 
When asked about Congress program a Senior BJP leader and the Member of Parliament Prahlad Joshi said, “Yes I agree that there are some differences of opinion among the state BJP leaders. However, we have marked a number of remarkable achievements in the last four years of our rule. In terms of development, we have achieved what Congress couldn’t do it in the last 50 years. People are intelligent and observing. People know our outstanding performance. They know how Congress-led UPA government is functioning. So whatever they do its not going to benefit the BJP. But we are happy that at least now the main opposition party leaders are coming out of there shell.”
 
But all said and done, people of the state smell something which is cooking in the state congress party. As in last 4 years, around 11 BJP ministers have quit due to many scandals, mainly related to corruption charges. And for the first time in the history of Karnataka, a chief minister had to lose his office thanks to corruption charges and got jailed. Along with these, blue film scandals, rape charges against a minister have further diminished the ruling BJP image. But the astonishing fact is that the main opposition party Congress is not able to turn the situation to its favor.  The surprising thing is that the JD(S) which has far less number of seats as compared to Congress is acting as main opposition party. In a way, Congress has become a party of leaders with no cadre base. But now they have all of a sudden wakened up and started murmuring the mantra of unity and Strengthening the party from grassroots level.
 
Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is visiting the Siddhaganga mutt, which has great influence over the strangest community of the state, the Lingayats. Sonia’s visit may have not had a direct influence over sudden wake of state Congress leaders. But, one cannot completely rule out the possibility.
 
To put it in the words of Congress party cadre, “It’s really nice to hear that our leaders, keeping all their personal clashes aside, have finally started talking about the unity and party building from booth level. I hope that our new campaign may won’t lead to new conflicts among our leaders and widen the gap.”