Congress in Karnataka today completed its two-day exercise of eliciting opinion on selection of candidates to contest the coming Lok Sabha polls. Three teams led by senior leaders including the state unit working president D K Shivakumar collated opinion from district unit chiefs and prominent leaders. The other two teams were headed by former chief minister N Dharam Singh and former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah, party sources said here.
The entire process was supervised by AICC general secretary Gulam Nabi Azad, who has been appointed as in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka. The party has prepared a panel of candidates for each of the 28 Parliamentary constituencies which it would submit to the high command for final selection.
Congress faces a difficult task as it takes on the ruling BJP, upbeat after its fine performance in the assembly bye-elections held in eight constituencies last year. BJP won five while Congress drew a blank. JDS won three.
The Congress won eight seats out of 28 in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls while BJP took 18 seats and JDS two.