Congress will go it alone in panchayat polls: KPCC?chief G Parameshwara

Bengaluru, Dec 20: The Congress will not forge an alliance with any political party in the upcoming zilla and taluk panchayat elections, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara said.

Addressing the media in Bengaluru on Saturday, he said the party would contest all the seats independently. Elections will be held in as many as 1,083 zilla panchayat and 3,902 taluk panchayat seats.

The Election Commission has already announced the constituency-wise reservation list and it will probably make the election dates public by January 10 or 12. The party will work towards releasing the list of its candidates by January 1, he said.

The candidates will be selected by a district-level committee headed by the district in-charge ministers. The committees will be asked to send the final list to the State Congress Committee by January 1.

National Herald row

On the National Herald controversy, Parameshwara said BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had filed the case against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It is a politically motivated case and the Congress will fight against it both legally and politically, he said.

The women’s wing of the party, too, condemned the BJP and Modi in this regard. In a press statement, president of the wing, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, has stated that the organisation would hold awareness campaigns highlighting the drawbacks of the BJP and Modi’s leadership.

ZP, TP elections

Elections to 1,083 zilla panchayat seats and 3,902 taluk panchayat seats likely to be announced next month