New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will focus on two key southern states where he will seek votes for party candidates in Kerala on April 15, 16 and in Karnataka on April 17. The Congress managers hope to win a significant number of seats from the two southern states. Polling for the 20 seats in Kerala will take place on April 26 while the 28 seats in Karnataka will have polling in two phases on April 26 and May 7.
Though the Congress was not in power in Kerala in the previous 2019 national polls, the grand old party-led alliance UDF had won 19 out of 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Congress had contested 16 seats and won 15 seats, while allies IUML had won two seats, RSP one seat and KCM one seat.
The party managers had attributed the spectacular result to the presence of the then Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who had contested from the Wayanad seat for the first time. In 2024, Rahul is again contesting from Wayanad while AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal has also joined the fray from Alpuzzha. The UDF is hopeful of winning all the 20 seats.
“Our workers are charged up and the campaign is going very well. It is majorly based on the social welfare guarantees of the party. Rahul Gandhi’s presence will further boost the campaign,” AICC secretary in-charge of Kerala P Vishwanathan told ETV Bharat.
Party insiders said Rahul is likely to campaign in Thiruvananthapuram, Wayanad, Alappuzha and Ernakulam seats during the two-day visit, but there was a demand from several other areas as well. In Karnataka, the Congress and the JD-S had contested the 2019 polls in alliance. The Congress contested 21 seats and won only one seat while the JD-S contested seven seats and won only one seat. In contrast, the BJP contested 27 out of 28 seats in Karnataka and won 25 seats.
In the 2024 polls, the Congress is pitted against the BJP-JD-S combine and is hopeful of winning 20 seats on the basis of the 2023 Assembly election results in which the Congress won 135/224 seats, its best performance in over three decades.
Out of three seats being contested by friend-turned-foe JD-S, Mandya, Hassan and Kolar, the Congress strategists have chosen to hold Rahul’s rallies in Kolar and Mandya on April 17.
In Kolar, the Congress managers had faced infighting over a proposed party candidate related to senior leader KH Muniyappa and later fielded a younger face KV Gowtham, who will take on JD-S’s Mallesh Babu. The seat was with the BJP.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shiv Kumar recently held a strategy session with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and assured the high command of winning the Kolar seat. In Mandya, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy is pitted against Congress candidate Venkataramane Gowda.
“Our state government has delivered on all the key promises made before the Assembly polls and the people have benefited from it. The 25 guarantees this time will take that message further. We are confident of getting a good score in the state,” AICC secretary in-charge of Karnataka Abhishek Dutt told ETV Bharat.
“We sacrificed and gave the Chief Minister’s chair to JD-S in 2018 to keep the BJP out, but they ditched us and joined hands with the saffron party,” he added.
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