New Delhi: The Congress is looking at significant gains in its 2024 Lok Sabha tally from Karnataka and Telangana where the party came to power recently. The party is eyeing 20 plus out of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka and 12 plus out of the 17 parliamentary seats in Telangana.
Karnataka Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shiv Kumar are likely to discuss the party’s Lok Sabha strategy with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who has given charge of the 17 parliamentary seats in Telangana to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and other ministers.
According to party insiders, the chief minister will be in charge of Chevella and Mahbubnagar seats while his deputy Bhatti Vikramark will be responsible for Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Kharge had earlier deployed 17 senior leaders as AICC observers for the 17 Lok Sabha seats during the assembly polls and they have submitted their reports citing the pluses and minuses of each parliamentary constituency.
“The Congress has a good chance of winning most of the Lok Sabha seats in the state. Our government is delivering on the promises and the BRS has been discredited,” AICC in-charge of Telangana Manikrao Thakre told ETV Bharat. “Our workers are already on the ground,” he said. Party insiders said the Karnataka unit too has been on the job and has already taken feedback from the district teams on the potential candidates for the next Lok Sabha candidates.
However, the party insiders said the Congress needs to make the choices carefully as the political dynamics in the state have changed after the recent BJP-JD-S alliance. “The BJP-JD-S alliance is a new factor in the state politics. We will have to see its impact on the ground. Initially, the move resulted in the Muslim leaders of the JD-S reacting and quitting the regional party but it could lead to polarization of the voters as well,” a senior AICC functionary said.
According to party insiders, the AICC is yet to appoint observers for the 28 parliamentary seats in Karnataka and the actual work will start only after that. The team of Siddaramaiah and DKS is expected to discuss the Lok Sabha plan with Kharge as well as ways to counter the BJP-JD-S combine in the state. “We can get over 20 seats in the state this time,” said senior state leader Prakash Rathod.
In the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress and the JD-S came together to form a coalition government which was toppled by the BJP in 2019. Ahead of the 2023 assembly polls, the Congress had charged that the JD-S and the BJP were working together to defeat the grand old party. “Their teamwork was proved recently when they formed an alliance. The same way BJP and BRS will form an alliance in Telangana,” said Thakre.
According to the party insiders, given the strong focus on the INDIA alliance, the Congress would also have to consult the Left parties on the poll strategies in the two southern states, which can give an additional 30 seats in the next Lok Sabha.
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