Bangalore: The opposition Congress in Karnataka today decided to reach out to the people with party leaders planning to tour all 224 assembly segments over four months from March and said the exercises can be termed as pre-election preparations.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee held its general body meeting here, where it resolved to kick start a state-wide agitation to highlight the "failures" of the Bhartiya Janata Party government.
 
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President G Parameshwara said state leaders would tour all assembly segments till June to strengthen the organisation, understand the local problems and also with an eye to readying local candidates for the Assembly poll.

"You can interpret this as preparations for the Assembly elections", he told reporters in a briefing on the deliberations, where Union Ministers S M Krishna and M Veerappa Moily, both former Chief Ministers, also took part.

Given the bickerings in the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party, where the leadership issue has again cropped up with B S Yeddyurappa adopting pressure tactics, Congress leaders believe that elections, due only in mid-2013, are "inevitable" this year, sources said.

The party demanded immediate implementation of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining, and pressed the Government to suggest names for the post of Lokayukta.

Parameshwara pressed the Government to provide 40 per cent of the allocation in the coming budget to the agriculture and irrigation sectors to mitigate the sufferings of farmers.

The Congress demanded handing over of probe into alleged misappropriation of funds in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The party alleged that the Government is being actually run by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and also called on the United Progressive Alliance government to constitute a monitoring committee to look into the spending of central grants in the State.
 

Tags: Congress, G Parameshwara, Karnataka, M Veerappa Moily, opposition, S M Krishna, south