Mangaluru: Padmaraj R Poojary, who has been appointed president of the Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee (DCC) by the AICC, said that his priority will be to build the party at the grassroots level to ensure victory for the party in all eight assembly constituencies of Dakshina Kannada.Poojary told reporters on Thursday, that the Congress party still holds strong ground in Dakshina Kannada, and is gaining further strength. “In the Lok Sabha elections held in 2024, being a Congress candidate, I secured more than 6 lakh votes. In Dakshina Kannada, much of the development we see today took place when the central government was led by the Congress party. Due to various external reasons, Congress had suffered setbacks here over several years, but in my election, I never looked at the result as a defeat,” Padmaraj said.Referring to the upcoming gram panchayat, taluk panchayat, zilla panchayat, and Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) elections, Padmaraj said that the DCC will take everyone along and organise the party. “Working together from the grassroots, we will ensure that Congress secures a decisive majority in this district in the upcoming elections. I have never harbored a personal desire to contest again. My sole ambition and utmost priority is to restore the past glory of the Congress party in this district, and I have taken a vow to achieve this,” he said.He said that under the leadership and strategic roadmap of CM DK Shivakumar, the Congress will return to power in Karnataka in 2028. AICC observer and Kozhikode North MLA K Jayanth held consultations and conducted an exercise to choose the Dakshina Kannada DCC president.Kishan Kumar Hegde for UdupiThe AICC appointed Kishan Kumar Hegde as the new president of the Udupi DCC. Hegde previously served as the working president of the Udupi District Congress Committee. Recently, the AICC appointed observers who collected the opinions of Congress leaders across all districts under the Sanghatan Srijan Abhiyaan programme. Based on the observers’ reports, the AICC took the final decision to choose DCC heads.
