Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Dec 4: At a time when the state unit of the Congress appears to be not out of the deep depression it has been going through after its dismal performance in the assembly election held over six months back, it is faced with a by-election that it hoped, would be postponed by the Election Commission. To rejuvenate the state unit and finalize the list of candidates for the by-poll scheduled later in the month, AICC general secretary and in-charge of the state Congress affairs, Prathviraj Chauhan will be arriving here on the evening of Thursday December 4.

He is scheduled to hold consultations with the party leaders today evening, to choose the party candidates for the by-election. In addition, he will be discussing the strategy the party has to adopt to improve its performance this time around.

The state unit of the party, which was revamped recently with the induction of fresh faces, R V Deshpande and D K Shivkumar as the president and working president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee respectively, has not yet shown the vibrancy expected of it so far. Its plans to strike an understanding with the JD(S) for the by-poll suffered a setback after some of the leaders strongly opposed the move. The state leadership, which wants to field candidates for all the eight constituencies that will be going to polls, has already sent a list of probable candidates to the national leadership. Sources say, that the party high command would like to have a re-look at the possibility and feasibility of having a truck with the JD(S) before finalizing the list.

The final list will probably be out after Prathviraj Chauhan pools opinions of state leaders on the selection of candidates and briefs the high command on his return to the country's capital on Friday.