Keeping Rahul away is part of Congress strategy to win Karnataka polls

The Karnataka Congress leadership said that an alliance would help in splitting the BJP votes.

The Congress high command has decided that it would interfere less in Karnataka and let the local leaders do their job ahead of the assembly elections in 2018. During a meeting on Tuesday in which Congress vice president, Rahul Gandhi was present along with Karnataka in-charge, K C Venugopal, it was decided that Siddaramaiah would be the face of the party for the assembly elections.

During the meeting, Rahul Gandhi told the team in charge of the state, the leaders would have a free hand in taking decisions. There would be no interference from the high command in Delhi. The team would even have a free hand in taking a call on alliances for the Karnataka assembly elections 2018.

The Karnataka Congress leadership said that an alliance would help in splitting the BJP votes. They cited the example of the by-elections in Nanjangud and Gundlupet where the Janata Dal (S) had not fielded any candidate. Rahul Gandhi said that the team was free to take any decision. He also made it clear that the CM candidate would be Siddaramaiah and there were no two ways about it.

OneIndia News