The Congress election war-room at 5, Ali Askar Road, in the heart of Bengaluru, is the scene of quiet planning and strategy. For a year, KC Venugopal has had an office here. As the party’s General Secretary in charge of Karnataka, his role has been to calm tempers, resolve intra-party fissures and form column lines behind Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Between monitoring campaign strategy, propaganda wars on social media, and coordination among candidates, Venugopal spoke to BusinessLine on why Siddaramaiah occupies the pole position in the State and why the BJP, with BS Yeddyurappa, the Reddy brothers and B Sriramalu, is in a “worse position than 2013”. Excerpts from an interview:

How do you assess the campaign after Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun his round of rallies?

I am very sorry to say that the Prime Minister has brought the discourse to a new low in Karnataka. I cannot believe that a person occupying this high an office would resort to petty personal attacks to score political points. His only purpose of attacking Rahul Gandhi was to showcase his praise for Deve Gowda (JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda). But I don’t think you can fool everybody all the time. Here, in Karnataka, everyone knows that the Congress President does not speak ill of anyone. He never attacks anyone at a personal level. Rahul Gandhi has not uttered a word against Deve Gowda. He attacked JD(S) and its public posturing becausethey are hand-in-glove with the BJP. During elections, it is our responsibility to tell people who stands with whom. So, if the JD(S) has a tacit understanding with the BJP, we should point it out to the people.

Deve Gowda has completely refuted any understanding with the BJP; he says Siddaramaiah is making it up…

When the Chief Minister says there has been a discussion between Amit Shah and [HD] Kumaraswamy (JD-S State chief), he means it. The Chief Minister has proof. What the Prime Minister said in praise of Deve Gowda only proves his [Siddaramaiah’s] point. The fact is that both the BJP and the JD(S) are aware of where they stand in Karnataka today. The BJP knows they will not cross 50 seats. The JD(S) has also realised that this is the toughest election for them. Therefore, they are trying to cling to each other. This reality is clear to the people of Karnataka. None of their covert games will work this time.

There seems to be a spike in the communal pitch…

The BJP has no agenda or issue except for dividing people on communal lines. But they underestimate the dominant culture in this very sober and developed State. We put nothing past the BJP; look at the manner in which they are employing central agencies to target our candidates. They are misusing the Income Tax department. I have information that the I-T Department has a plan to target 25 winning Congress candidates in coming 3-4 days. But why has a single BJP candidate not been raided by central agencies? There is not a single instance. Their anxiety to crush the Congress by misusing central agencies and unleashing communal hatred is proof enough that the ground has shifted from beneath their feet.

Don’t you think the BJP has been clever to keep a distance between the Central leaders and the Reddy brothers, even though the family has made a comeback.

How can the BJP central leadership, Amit Shah and Modi, have rejected the Reddy brothers? Modi and Shah are both in the BJP’s election committee. They approved the candidature of Reddy brothers. G Somashekhar Reddy and G Karunakar Reddy are both contesting on the lotus symbol. Yeddyurappa has been projected the CM candidate. Eight tickets were given to the Reddy brothers and their cohorts.

And they have the gall to talk about corruption in the Congress! You underestimate the voter’s intelligence when you give tickets to the mining mafia and then claim your distance by not sharing stage with them. There were some reports that even Yeddyurappa will share limited time on the stage with the PM. But he is their chief ministerial candidate. He is insisting that everybody must cooperate with the Reddy brothers. Now Yeddyurappa is saying that the Reddy brothers were chosen by Amit Shah. They think they can mislead the people of Karnataka by playing these games. There is a desperation in the BJP now.

But you must concede that there is an energy in the PM’s rallies; he is certainly a better orator than Rahul Gandhi.

Modiji challenged Rahul Gandhi to speak for 15 minutes. We are challenging Modi ji to speak at least for 15 seconds without making false declarations. You see, truth has a way of coming out. Rahul ji may be soft-spoken and humble, but in the end, people understand who has substance and who is posturing.

Modi ji has perfected the art of insulting everyone. We saw how he insulted Manmohan Singh ji in Parliament because he was anxious about the people’s response to demonetisation and Manmohan Singh ji ’s speech struck a chord with people.

He is routinely insulting the sitting Chief Minister [Siddaramaiah]. Look at the way elders in the BJP, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, have been treated by Modi.

This is not the way we conduct ourselves. And people understand that now.

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