Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Mounesh Vishwakarma

Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (ANK)

Bantwal, Jan 6: Karnataka Pradesh Congress committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar inaugurated the Congress’ convention of Mysuru division ‘Sankalpa Samavesha’ at BC Road on Wednesday January 6.

Addressing the gathering, Shivakumar said, “This year is going to be a year of struggle. I will visit 150 constituencies. We need to strengthen our party in the constituencies. We will conduct booth level survey through project ‘Praja’ as we have noticed the activities of BJP. Meanwhile, we need to prepare leaders in booth level and ensure that every section of the society joins hands in strengthening our party. New leaders should emerge. Your voice should be the KPCC president’s voice as this year will be a year of struggle for us.

“When a programme is conducted in booth level, make sure that it reaches people. Take self-help groups into confidence. The party’s basic foundation is our ideology and the goal. The moment we stay away from our ideologies and goals, we will face defeat. Hence, all of us should stick to our ideologies and goals,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar took the party representatives to task and urged them to maintain discipline, switch off their mobile phones, show some seriousness about the convention and deliver their thoughts on the strengthening of the party.

Former minister Ramanath Rai welcomed the gathering.

Former Chief minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC working president Saleem Ahammed, MLA U T Khader, district Congress president Harish Kumar, former MLAs Shakuntala Shetty, J R Lobo and Mohiudeen Bava, KPCC and AICC members and others were present.

The divisional convention will be conducted from January 6 to 18. After Bantwal, the convention will take place in Bengaluru on January 8, Belgaum on January 11 and Gulbarga on January 18. The convention has been titled as ‘Sankalpa Samavesha’. During the convention, discussions will be carried out on strengthening the party and strategy will be discussed for the upcoming elections.

‘Siddaramaiah’s view on eating beef his personal’

Speaking to media, Shivakumar said, "The statement given by Siddaramaiah with regards to eating beef is his personal opinion. It does not reflect the views of the party. There is no damage to the party.

"There was no need to bring in law for banning cow slaughter. This is implemented by BJP for gaining political mileage. The tradition of venerating cows has been there since ages.

"Siddaramaiah has said about his habits. There is no damage done to Congress because of his statement. What is wrong in sharing his personal opinion with the workers of the party?

"People of all classes of society do animal husbandry. Let the government give compensation to all of them from Rs 25,000 to 50,000. Let the government then take the cattle to their homes, if they want.

"We are launching the work of organizing the party from the holy land of Coastal Karnataka. We will get to know the opinions of grass-root workers and leaders of the party. Later a state-wide fight will be held. Congress will attain power in the district of Dakshina Kannada also,” he said.

'We will convert the party from mass base to cadre base'

“Dakshina Kannada is the sacred land that has rendered culture to our country. We will begin the task of converting our party from mass base to cadre base from here,” said KPCC president DK Shivakumar.

“Dakshina Kannada is the land that has provided education and economic strength to the country. We see in history that the government which is elected by people comes to power and they attempt to mislead these people,” he said.

“Though I am a Congress party president, I have come here as an ordinary party activist. The voice of activists should be the voice of the president. Therefore, we urge presidents of various districts in Mysuru and the defeated candidates to listen to the local problems. Every block president should speak about local problems and unity. It was also announced on the day of taking the oath that we will convert the party from mass-based party to cadre-based party. We will implement the resolution from Dakshina Kannada district,” he said.