Dinesh Gundu Rao anointment is message from high command: Party for young faces

Bengaluru: By anointing Dinesh Gundurao as KPCC president, the Congress high command has sent a clear signal to disgruntled senior leaders of the party who missed Cabinet berths that young leaders were needed to face the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 

Though many aspirants were in the race for the top post in the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, the high command picked Mr Gundurao, considering his cordial relationship with party workers during his tenure as the KPCC working president. His good track record as Youth Congress president too helped, party sources said. 

One of the strong contenders was H.K. Patil. In fact, he had high hopes as he expected the party to compensate him for not making it to the Kumaraswamy cabinet. But considering the present circumstances and the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, AICC president Rahul Gandhi elevated Mr Gundurao, the sources said.

The party central leaders felt that the 47-year-old Gundurao, who has been the party working president for the last two years, has had a good working relationship with the cadre and has a good understanding of the inner workings of the party. Any other leader would have had to spend considerable time getting acquainted with the party grassroots workers, the high command assessed, the sources said. Also, no one in the party would object to his elecvation.

AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal, in-charge of Karnataka, too backed Mr Gundurao for the post, the sources said. 

Moreover the high command wanted the status quo to continue for some time as many senior leaders were upset after being left out of cabinet posts.