All India Congress Committee General Secretary Rahul Gandhi kickstarted his two-day visit to the State urging Youth Congress workers to take up the common man’s cause and trounce the BJP government in Karnataka.
Gandhi’s call assumes importance after Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda hinted at advancing Assembly elections in the State recently.
Addressing the “Yuva Sangharsh” convention attended by around 20,000 office-bearers and members of the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress at the Nehru Stadium here, Gandhi urged the party workers to blend youth and experience to pull off an electoral success.
Criticising the state government for administrative irregularities, the Gandhi scion alleged that funds released by the Centre were not reaching the people of Karnataka.
“When the common people are suffering from drought situation, BJP leaders in Bangalore are stealing public money. They are becoming richer and the common people are becoming poorer,” Gandhi said.
“Earlier, Karnataka was developing well and all communities were growing together. After the BJP came to power, it made people to fight against each other. Now, Karnataka has set a record in corruption. Such magnitude of corruption cannot be seen anywhere else.
At this juncture, only the Congress Party can bring about change,” he said.
During his eight-minute speech, Gandhi also explained the internal election system introduced in the Youth Congress.
“Earlier, the Youth Congress was an organisation of the youth, but they had no decision taking powers, as its office-bearers were nominated. Though it was said that elected youth could not run this organisation, a pilot project of the Youth Congress elections was launched in Punjab first and, in last the two-and-a-half years, all office-bearers of the Youth Congress across the country are elected. Now, youth have their voice in the Youth Congress,” he noted.
Union Ministers M Mallikarjun Kharge, M Veerappa Moily and K H Muniyappa, AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad, Madhusudhan Mistry, AICC Secretary Hanumanthrao, KPCC president G Parameshwar, IYC President Rajiv Satav, State President Rizwan Arshad and others were present.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi also participated in the national executive meetings of the NSUI and the Indian Youth Congress.