Congress considering 6-8 rallies by Rahul Gandhi in Karnataka during campaign period

BENGALURU: The Congress in Karnataka is switching gears after the announcement of the Assembly election schedule by the Election Commission of India on Wednesday.

Apart from the rally with party leader Rahul Gandhi will address in Kolar on April 5, the state leadership has also planned to invite him to 6-8 other rallies while planning to get Priyanka Gandhi to address a women’s convention.

The party will also identify 30 star campaigners and take steps to reach its guarantee card to every household in the state. While AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge is also expected to campaign extensively, the task of negotiating with leaders from other parties has been left to KPCC president D K Shivakumar and legislature party leader Siddaramaiah.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressing the Yuva Shakti rally in Belagavi on Monday.

Meanwhile, supporters of D K Shivakumar are demanding that he too contest from two constituencies — Kanakapura and Mandya — to counter H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) and energise the cadre in the district. The argument of the suporters is that it will help ensure the party’s victory in the district and also give him an equal footing for claim to the Chief Minister’s post if the party comes to power.

The Congress will also look to use the reservation issue to target the BJP by raising the issue of changing reservation for Muslims to EWS category and the quota for Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

The party will be looking to highlight that the BJP is trying to divide castes for votes and organise protests in every district, raise the issue of Muslim EWS reservation as unconstitutionals and promising to restore the OBC reservation form them while demanding the Centre to provide separated reservation for Vokkaligas and Lingayats.

On similar lines, the JD(S) is also planning to highlight that the reservation announced by the government is against the Constitution. Party leader H D Kumaraswamy has already publicly stated that he will not accept the reservation announced. The party will look to highlight that the BJP is pitting castes against each other for votes and deliberately removed OBC reservation for Muslims.