The All India Congress Committee dissolved its Karnataka unit on Wednesday in what appeared to be a move to recast the entire organisational structure in the state where the party had got a drubbing in the recent parliamentary elections.
The Congress managed to win just one of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, down eight from its 2014 tally, a debacle that had led to serious differences within the party even on continuing the ruling alliance with the Janata Dal Secular.
“The AICC has decided to dissolve the present committee of (the) Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. The president and working president remain unchanged,” said a brief note signed by AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal.
This means state party president Dinesh Gundu Rao and working president Eshwar Khandre will be the only two functionaries who would remain as the party apparatus gets restructured in the coming weeks.
“We are going for a complete overhaul with new office bearers at the district and state levels,” Rao told reporters at the party office here, adding that no time frame had been given for electing the new functionaries.
“The reorganisation is a way to strengthen our party structure from the grassroots level,” he said.
Rizwan Arshad, one of the most popular young leaders in the party, said the revamp would be a “routine exercise” aimed at giving Rao a new team.
“The new team would be a mix of experience, youth and women. Other interests would come into play as leaders from different communities and regions of the state would be considered,” Arshad told this newspaper.
Since no time frame has been given, he said, the state president could take his own time in consulting seniors and making new appointments.
“My guess is he would take more than a month to finalise names after due consultation with seniors and the high command,” he said.
Arshad, 39, who was fielded from Bangalore Central but lost to his BJP rival, saw the poll debacle as only “one of the reasons” for the structural reorganisation.
“When the president (Rao) took over in July last year, he didn’t have sufficient time to pick his own team due to by-elections and preparations for the general election. So this is the right time to pick his own team,” Arshad said.
The young leader was among those present at a meeting addressed by the state chief on the decision to restructure the unit.
Arshad said new district chiefs would be appointed in the due course. “Most of the district presidents were appointed by the previous president, G. Parameshwara (who is now deputy chief minister),” he said.
A former state functionary, who declined to be named, admitted it was high time the party was reorganised.
“We badly need a new team. I had said this more than once at party meetings. I don’t mind losing my position. But for the health of the party, we need a team with some good youngsters,” the leader, who is in his late sixties, said.
“A restructuring would also give us a team that works in tandem with Dinesh (Gundu Rao) without carrying any baggage of the old chief (Parameshwara),” he added, citing one of the immediate benefits of a freshly minted organisation.
“Another possibility is that there would be fewer people who can be controlled by seniors like Siddaramaiah, whose stamp is so clear on many of the office bearers (who just lost their positions).”
Former chief minister P.C. Siddaramaiah, who chairs the coalition coordination committee, had a lot of influence in past appointments. Several of his loyalists were in the organisational set-up.
“Parameshwara (too) used his influence with the high command to prevent any change of district presidents months before the Lok Sabha polls. It is now very clear that this had weakened the district structures led by inefficient presidents,” the senior leader said without taking any names.
Cong rebel
Congress MLA Roshan Baig has received support from the state BJP chief a day after he was suspended for anti-party activities. Baig had recently urged Muslims to join hands with BJP-led NDA and slammed senior Congress leaders.
“Roshan Baig is suspended because he spoke against the party in which no one who speaks the truth is tolerated,” B.S. Yeddyurappa said.