Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 2: The fact-finding committee appointed to find out the reasons for the debacle of the Congress in the Lok Sabha election in the state handed over its report to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president on Tuesday October 1.

Head of the committee V R Sudarshan, presented the report to Dinesh Gundu Rao. Out of 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, the party, as per an electoral understanding entered into with the JD(S), had fielded candidates in 21 constituencies, leaving aside the rest to the JD(S). In spite of the support of the JD(S), the Congress did not fare well in the election. The Congress, which had represented ten Lok Sabha seats in the state till then, could win only one constituency.

Former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy

Taken aback by this sudden drop in its popularity, the Congress had formed a fact-finding committee to go into the causes leading to this trend. The committee headed by former chairman of the state legislative council, V R Sudarshan, with leaders Veeranna Mattikatti, Basavaraj Rayareddy, Veerakumar Patil, Dhruvanarayana and Nasir Ahmedl as its members, recorded the above findings.

Speaking on the occasion, Sudarshan said that the committee undertook tour of the state from June 25 to August 25, collected opinions of the people, and prepared this report. Opinions of common people, party workers, leaders etc were collected for this purpose he added. "We have prepared this report containing 63 pages, duly ensuring that it is as close to truth as possible. The report is based on 26 points. Our party faced reverses in 56 assembly constituencies. We have listed out causes for our defeat. Reasons like inefficient party organization, family politics, fielding of officials, shortage of understanding between parties at local level, etc have been mentioned. We have also given suggestions for steps to be taken for improving of the party's performance in future," he explained.

Sudarshan said that the issue of demand for separate Lingayat religion hit the party hard. "Even though our government had extended good support to Veerashaiva Lingayat community and extended huge grant, BJP got engaged in negative publicity on this issue. Even though our party was not directly involved with this campaign, BJP projected the Congress as being responsible for this controversy," he stated. Sudarshan also informed that the committee had visited different places three days in a week, discussed matters with local leaders, and gathered their opinion, and the report has been prepared without concealing anything.