Karnataka: Eye on assembly polls, seniors look for prominent party posts

BENGALURU: With the 2023 assembly elections to Karnataka barely a year away, senior functionaries across the three major political parties — BJP, Congress and JD(S) — are eyeing prominent and highprofile posts in their respective parties.
All three parties have embarked on an organisational restructuring process in a bid to put together what they hope will be winning teams for the assembly elections.With a churn on the cards, senior functionaries are lobbying for responsibilities that could propel them to plum positions in the government if their party comes to power.
Of the three, Congress was the first of the blocks as it appointed former minister MB Patil as its campaign committee chairman. Patil, who took charge last month, is planning to set up a state campaign committee besides campaign committees at the district level across the state. “We are drawing up a plan of action for the election campaign which will be implemented soon after the formation of the state campaign committee comprising senior functionaries,” said
Patil. “This may take a week or two,” he added.
Congress party has also begun building new teams with the elections in mind, and had appointed about 150 new office-bearers in the first phase last month. In the second phase, it will appoint secretaries and district presidents as it plans to hit the ground running.
“Besides these appointments, formation of three important panels including the state executive committee, election committee and manifesto committee are on the cards. The idea is to launch the poll campaign as early as possible,” said Saleem Ahmed, working president of the state unit.
New post BJP, the party in power, is mulling over appointing a campaign committee chairman for the first time in the state. While the practice of appointing a campaign chairman had been around at the national level — Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assumed the responsibility in 2013 before he was named as the PM candidate — the party unit in Karnataka has never had such a position in the past.
The post assumes its own significance and aspirants are already making a beeline to land it. They include BY Vijayendra, BJP state vicepresident, and KS Eshwarappa, who was forced to resign as rural development and panchayat raj minister last week following allegations of corruption.
State BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel had backed Eshwarappa, saying he had done nothing wrong and the party will utilise his services with due respect.
The buzz also suggests that a few senior ministers will be eased out from the government and given organisational responsibilities in the party. This will ease the pressure on chief minister Basavaraj Bommai to rejig or expand the cabinet. Bommai is awaiting the nod from the high command to complete this exercise of inducting new faces in his cabinet and is expected to visit New Delhi next week. There are five vacancies in the cabinet.
“Ministers who will be eased out of the cabinet will work for the party with key roles in the campaign,” said N Ravikumar, BJP state general secretary and MLC. Strengthening exercise Meanwhile, the JD(S) recently appointed CM Ibrahim, who defected from Congress, as state party president and he is now on a mission to build poll teams. “We need to strengthen the organisational base right from the grassroots level to senior positions. The exercise will begin from May 4 after Ramzan,” said Ibrahim.