Karnataka Congress Conducts Survey to Select Candidates, Decide Poll Strategy

Bengaluru: Karnataka's ruling Congress is conducting a survey to collect data to help it select candidates and decide strategy for the 2018 Assembly polls, state party chief G Parameshwara said on Saturday.

The party is conducting divisional surveys and after these are complete, it will organise conferences in all the districts to inform people about the government's acheivements, he told reporters in Bengaluru.

On whether the survey was for selecting candidates for the polls, Parameshwara said, "We will use that. We must know the ground reality, naturally that will also help in the selection process."

"The survey is going on, we will survey every assembly segment and we will get the basic data, based on which we will also make the opinion," he said.

Parameshwara, however, clarified that the surveywould not be the only criteria for the candidate selection. Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced that the Congress would carry out a survey on the performance of its government and legislators to formalise a strategy in the run up to the Assembly elections.

Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa last month hadtold PTI that a survey would be conducted by an external agency for distribution of tickets for the 2018 Assembly polls andadded that the party was preparing for early elections.

Pointing out that the state Congress committee has been reorganised, Parameshwara said 171 people have been appointed as office bearers, 33 of them women. Conceding that the size of the committee is "big", he said it was required keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly polls.

Parameshwarahit out at the BJP for accusing the Congress and its general secretary in-charge of Karanataka K C Venugopal for bringing in "Kerala model" in the state. He was referring to the communal disturbance in the coastal region of the state and alleged that it is the BJP that was "instigating" trouble.

"BJP and its leaders are very well aware of who is behind it (communal disturbances). Keep yourselves (BJP leaders) away from it. If you keep yourselves away from communal activities, naturally there will be peace," he said. He also appealed to Muslim organisations like PFI, SDPI to keep away from such activities.

Several state BJP leaders, including Yeddyurappa, had alleged that the Congress government and Venugopal (who hails fromKerala) were "prompting" Kerala-like "communal murders" in Karnataka.