Karnataka Congress president D.K. Shivakumar, who is set to hold the reins for at least another year, wants the state unit to be converted into a cadre-based one from the ground up.

The initiative is undeterred by the fact that a similar attempt in neighbouring Kerala by state president K. Sudhakaran, who assumed charge in 2021, had flopped. Sudhakaran tried to establish a semi-cadre-based structure and even wanted the party workers to address each other as “comrades”, quite like the CPM and CPI rivals do.

Assured of another year in office, a responsibility he would carry along with being the deputy chief minister, Shivakumar has called for empowering the booth-level workers by giving them more responsibilities in an organisational structure.

What seems to have inspired Shivakumar was the recent statement by BJP president J.P. Nadda that the party no longer needs the RSS cadres. Nadda had said the BJP has “grown and we are capable” of running the party without the RSS’s support.

Shivakumar reminded the Congress workers he addressed to mark the death anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru here on Monday that the BJP “would be a
zero without the RSS cadres” and this would be an opportunity for the Congress to grow in the state.

He said the model he envisaged would build a “Congress kutumba (family)” by making every leader accessible to the grassroots worker. He would meet the state party office-bearers on June 1 to launch the new programme.

“We must grow as a Congress kutumba (family),” he said, addressing leaders and elected representatives at all levels to work in unison and close contact.

Shivakumar wants all district office-bearers, who have held their posts for five years or more, to make way for the younger generation of leaders. As part of his plan to make the party cadre-based, Shivakumar suggested that every elected representative including the chief minister should spare three hours each month to meet the party workers.

His plan is to prepare the party to win the 2028 state elections and ensure an undisturbed 10 years in power, sharply focusing on bringing in young blood to ensure a bright future.

Since the cadre-based model is the one that the Kerala unit tried and miserably failed in recent years, a senior party functionary from the neighbouring state had a word of caution against being too enthusiastic.

“Our president Sudhakaran came up with his semi-cadre model with gusto but flopped badly. I would like to warn Shivakumar to be wary of the dangers involved in converting Congress into a cadre-based party by learning from the mistakes we made in Kerala,” the leader, who declined to be named, told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

“Sudhakaran’s semi-cadre model didn’t receive any support in Kerala mainly because of his style of functioning that lacked finesse. All his predecessors were level-headed leaders who shunned muscle power, unlike Sudhakaran. I would advise Shivakumar not to fall into that trap and end up encouraging the wrong kind of young leaders,” he added.

Shivakumar has a history to back his idea as he led the party to a thumping victory by winning 135 of 224 seats in last year’s Assembly polls and is poised to do way better than the lone seat the party won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

On the other hand, Sudhakaran’s policies have not been tested yet.