K C Venugopal, P C Vishnunath happy with alliance

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal MP and AICC secretary P. C. Vishnunath can heave a sigh of relief as the party has been able to cobble up an alliance with the JD (S) and retain power even while a section of observers say the strategy of using soft Hindutva has backfired. Congress is soon to strategise BJP plans for southern India.  Its president Amit Shah is expected to take up a road trip soon. It was the former Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had appointed Mr Venugopal as in-charge of the party's affairs in Karnataka, replacing Digvijaya Singh. 

But the two leaders from Kerala worked in association with Rahul Gandhi who was overseeing the Karnataka Assembly elections.  Later when Mr Gandhi became the Congress president, things got more comfortable for them.  But it was a tough task awaiting the Alappuzha MP and his deputy with a weak state Congress leadership then.  The priority before the duo was to form 53, 000 booth committees.  Over the last one year, they became fluent in Kannada where they had to liaise with the local Congress leaders. 

Many a time, Mr Venugopal had to act tough on “lazy” legislators.  Mr Vishnunath said there had been days when they travelled more than 1000 km almost every day. “There was a practical difficulty in forming a pre-poll alliance with JD (S).  In those constituencies where JD (S) has won, Congress has come second with the BJP relegated to the third position. If there's a pre-poll alliance, the JD (S) local leadership would not have accepted the Congress,” he told DC.

The duo is elated with the strides they could make. They have 38 percent vote share compared to BJP’s 36.2 and JD (S)’s 18.4. Just because Congress has attained more than 5.5 lakh votes more than the BJP, it doesn't mean their work is over.  Mr Venugopal huddled with caretaker chief minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka PCC leaders over the strategy on the JD (S) – Congress alliance to form the government.  A leader close to Mr Venugopal said in 70 constituencies where JD (S), Congress and BJP were in a triangular contest, the Vokkaliga consolidation played spoilsport for the Congress. “We could wrest back several seats eluding us for more than three decades like the Basavakalyan which has got a sizable population of Lingayats,” he told DC.