HUBLI: Now that the Congress conventions in Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri districts are over, questions being asked here are what does the party want to achieve through this exercise and what signal would it like to convey?

Organising district-level conventions is the idea of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President M. Mallikarjun Kharge. He has indicated that he may give up his portfolio to devote time to strengthening the party.

The party did not bother to organise district-level conventions in the region before 2004. Sixteen months after the formation of the Congress-led coalition Government, the party decided to make its presence felt in the district.

True to the importance given to such conventions, Mr. Kharge stayed put in these districts, while Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh shuttled between Bangalore and the three district headquarters. Mr. Kharge had brought with him a host of Congress leaders.

Mobilisation of crowd appeared to be the single-point programme. Local leaders of the party were given vehicles to mobilise crowd. Party workers, who are concerned by their neglect by the Congress leadership, had no scope for interaction with party leaders.Going by this, Gadag where the party lost two of the five Assembly seats and Haveri where the party was wiped out in the elections put up a better show. The same was the response to the Dharwad district-level convention held in Hubli. It only reflected, according to observers, the desultory state of affairs in the party in Dharwad district, which has been neglected by the KPCC.

Other questions being asked are why was the Congress in a hurry to organise district-level conventions? Is it a part of the plan to prepare the party for the contingency of a snap poll to the Assembly with clear signs of growing chasm in perspectives on key issues between the coalition partners? Or is it an effort by the party to keep its flocks together from the increasing threat of poaching by the Janata Dal (Secular)? The signals that emerged from the deliberations were quite conflicting as regards early polls to the Assembly are concerned. Mr. Dharam Singh was quite categorical in ruling out early elections. But Mr. Kharge chose to give only subtle hint when he asked party workers to be ready for a possibility of "early elections. apart from facing elections to taluk and zilla panchayats.

On taking on the Janata Dal (S), Mr. Dharam Singh avoided any reference to it. Mr. Kharge went to extent of cautioning Mr. Deve Gowda not to raise any issues extraneous to the common minimum programme, which would weaken the coalition and destabilise the Government. But other Congress leaders went against Mr. Gowda in the presence of Mr. Dharam Singh and Mr. Kharge.

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