Congress to hold State-Level Convention in Mangaluru on February 17
Mangaluru: The Congress will hold a State-level convention of leaders and elected representatives at the playground of Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management here on February 17, said K. Harish Kumar, MLC and president of Dakshina Kannada Congress Committee.
Addressing presspersons, he said that the convention which will begin at 2 p.m. will be held in view of preparing the party for the Lok Sabha elections.
The party has chosen Mangaluru for holding the convention because the BJP which wrested the Dakshina Kannada (erstwhile Mangaluru) Lok Sabha constituency from the Congress in the 1991 elections has retained the seat for eight consecutive terms since then. In addition, the BJP won a majority of Assembly seats in the district in the last two elections.
Hence, the Congress will hold the convention to boost the morale of the workers in the coastal belt including in Udupi while the Lok Sabha election is on the cards. It is also to strengthen the party in the belt.
Though the convention is meant for only the leaders and elected representatives of the party, ordinary workers from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts as 10 workers from each booth will attend it.
Mallikarjuna Kharge, president, All-India Congress Committee and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha; Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister; D.K. Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister and president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, and Randeep Singh Surjewala, the party general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, will be among the leaders who will participate in the convention.
Kumar said that the Congress will go to the polls by highlighting the implementation of its five guarantee schemes. The State government is spending Rs 5,000 crores per month for implementing the schemes. In all, 39 lakh families in the State are getting zero electric bills and the Guruha Lakshmi scheme had 3.5 lakh beneficiaries.
He said that though the government has declared 223 taluks as drought hit, the impact of drought is not being felt by the people as the loss due to drought is being compensated by the guarantee schemes.
