Congress to partake in 2023 Karnataka polls with joint efforts than under CM face: Report

Despite extensive deliberations and back-to-back meetings with the state party leaders in Delhi, the Congress has decided to move forwards with its collective efforts rather than announcing its Chief Ministerial face for the forthcoming Karnataka assembly elections next year, according to ANI.

Notably, Karnataka Congress leaders including KPCC chief DK Shivakumar and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah held discussions with the top leadership of the party at the residence of Rahul Gandhi in Delhi for two days to carve out future strategies for the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections. Shivakumar confirmed this development by sharing pictures of the meeting that was held in Delhi. Pertaining to this, sources informed ANI that one of the factions of state leadership wants the party not to declare any face for the Chief Ministerial candidate and should go with the collective leadership in the impending polls.

Speaking about this development, sources told ANI that the grand old party believes that collective efforts are crucial this time to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is currently in power in the state, and that it is highly essential to go united in the election campaign to win the southern state. Keeping this in view, Congress will be launching back-to-back campaigns in the state to bolster the party's prospects, ANI reported.

'Aim is to win 150 seats in Karnataka': Siddaramaiah

Former Karnataka CM and veteran Congress leader Siddaramaiah stated that the aim of his party is to win about 150 seats in the upcoming Karnataka assembly election that is scheduled in 2023. 

Taking to his Twitter, Siddaramaiah wrote, "Aim of Karnataka Congress is to win 150 seats in the upcoming assembly election & we are confident of winning more than 130 seats. Our survey is also in line with our expectations. Irrespective of what Basavaraj Bommai or BJP says, our party will win with a clear majority."

He further claimed that the party has 10-12 winning candidates in each of the constituencies. "There are 10-12 winning candidates for Karnataka Congress in each of the constituencies. BJP does not have this problem and they don't have roots everywhere. This is the reason why BJP does Operation Kamala (Lotus) and takes MLAs from our party," he tweeted.