LS bypoll: Congress to pull up its socks

BANGALORE: The Congress is gearing up for the bypoll to the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat necessitated due to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda’s resignation.Speaking to newsmen here on Tuesday, he informed that the party has nominated four observers - H K Patil, Roshan Baig, V R Sudarshan and Dr H C Mahadevappa - to visit the constituency and obtain the views of party workers on selecting a candidate.He said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) would announce the dates for the byelection soon. He said a team of party leaders would visit the constituency and submit a report on selecting a suitable candidate.A team led by AICC general secretary Madhusudan Mistry would tour Kodagu, Udupi, Dakshina-Kannada, Chikmagalur, Shimoga and Uttara-Kannada districts from next week to galvanise the partry cadre ahead of the poll.“A mid-term Assembly election in the state Assembly is imminent,” he averred, adding that the party has identified 150 seats where the Congress has a bright chance of winning.“AICC leaders who are touring the state are in the process of collecting the opinion of the party workers. We haven’t yet finalised the candidate list as reported in a section of the media,” the KPCC president clarified.