Congress needs to weed out deadwood in Karnataka

The severe drubbing received by the Congress in the bypolls has left the main opposition party in disarray with its top brass stepping down owning responsibility for the debacle.

As the Congress is clueless and is groping in the dark for the right path for rejuvenation, the options are hard and the road ahead seems to be long.

As the main opposition party is struggling to come to terms, Jnanpeeth awardee and social thinker UR Ananthamurthy shared his thoughts on how the Congress could revive itself and contain the BJP. “It is time young blood with credible and progressive background is infused into the party vanguard,” he said.

However, Ananthamurthy was in favour of assigning thereins of the party to Siddaramaiah, who has quit as the leader of the opposition. The high command should identify a core group of promising young leaders with appropriate representation for various communities and assign it the task of rejuvenating the party within a fair time-frame, he suggested.

The writer saw a huge potential in second rung leaders like G Parameshwar, Krishna Byre Gowda and NA Haris, who could prove ideal partners for seniors like Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar.

Ram Manohar Lohia Vichara Vedike chairman BS Shivanna was for a total revamp of the party. “People are fed up of the same old faces in the Congress leadership. The process has already been initiated by the party’s youth icon, Rahul Gandhi, and we should show some patience to see it yielding desired results. The party has many promising, young and committed leaders. They should be groomed. The party should project itself as the outfit that best reflects the aspirations of the future. The social chemistry should not be confined to just appointing some one from each community to key posts,” he said.

Shivanna saw good potential leaders in Parameshwar, Appaji Nadagouda and Krishna Byre Gowda. “Haris deserves a break if the party has to get a credible and progressive leader representing the Muslim community,” he felt.

Noted litterateur Baraguru Ramachandrappa advocated a strong need for the Congress to constitute a think tank on the lines of politburo in the left parties to encourage free flow of thoughts and promote healthy churning of ideas in the party. “It will also encourage professionals without political background to enter the party,” he said.

Baraguru attributed the present sorry state of the Congress to its long stint in power which made its leaders lose the focus at the grassroots.

“Apart from a total revamp of the party leadership, an intensive grassroot level party building work in the field and fighting for local issues instead of  wasting time in trading charges at political rivals could go a long way in redeeming the party,” he added.