At the ceremony, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who had served as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president since 2020, formally handed over charge to Hariprasad by presenting him with the party flag.
AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, Shivakumar, former chief minister Siddaramaiah, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, ministers, legislators and party office-bearers attended the event.
The 71-year-old MLC was appointed Karnataka Congress president on June 3, following Shivakumar’s resignation as KPCC chief.
An OBC leader from the Billava community, Hariprasad, was re-elected to the Karnataka Legislative Council on Thursday.
He has previously served as a member of the Rajya Sabha and as the AICC in-charge of Haryana and several other states.
The ruling party projected the event, held at Palace Grounds, as the beginning of its campaign for a series of upcoming elections, including those for the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority, and zilla and taluk panchayats, leading up to the 2028 Assembly elections.After assuming charge, Hariprasad said what he had assumed was not power but a “pious responsibility”.
He said the big challenge ahead of the party was the 2028 Assembly polls and the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Targeting the BJP and the RSS, he said they were “misusing constitutional bodies” and trying to subvert democracy and the Constitution.
He called them “anti-Constitution and anti-democracy”, while accusing them of “snatching away the freedom of the people.”
“We have to be careful about it,” he said.
Cautioning about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), he called on party members to fight against its misuse in snatching away people’s right to vote.
Hariprasad called the BJP and the RSS “cowards,” and claimed, “They are getting the opportunity as we (Congress) are quiet.”
He hit out at them for speaking with contempt against former PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
Complimenting Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for working together to bring the Congress to power in Karnataka and implementing the five guarantee schemes as promised, AICC chief Kharge said that if the party continued to work like that, it could come back to power once again.
Hariprasad had the responsibility of taking everyone to the party, he said.
“Hariprasad is not new to the party – he has grown in the party through various ranks and has today become the KPCC president, after having served in various capacities in different states and at the all-India level.”
Stating that the party wanted to make a person who had worked for building the party from the ground level – who could identify the workers and had instilled the Congress ideology in his life – the president, Kharge, said Hariprasad was made the president for this reason, and the same was the case with Shivakumar’s appointment as chief minister.
He hoped that both of them, under the guidance of other party leaders, would work together to bring the Congress back to power in the state in 2028 and help secure power for the party at the Centre in 2029.
Calling on party members to follow discipline, Kharge asserted that a personality cult had no place in the Congress.
He asked Hariprasad and Shivakumar to identify Congress workers and make them chairmen or members of boards and corporations, and to work for the upcoming local body polls.
Shivakumar, recalling his achievements as KPCC chief, said Hariprasad was a senior party karyakarta and leader who had served the party across the state and the country.
“Both Hariprasad and I grew as student leaders in the same college. He is three-four years senior to me. I’m satisfied to hand over charge to a loyal karyakarta, a student leader who has organised the party across the country,” he said.
He said that as a worker, he would work along with Hariprasad to bring the Congress back to power in 2028 and to make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister in 2029.
Lauding Hariprasad’s loyalty and commitment to the party’s ideology and principles, Siddaramaiah said he started as a common party worker and had worked for the party since 1972 in various capacities.
He was in the Youth Congress and the Seva Dal, and was in charge of the party in several states.
Accusing the BJP of trying to “destroy the country’s pluralism and divide the people in the name of religion, caste and language,” he said this was a challenge before all of them. “We have to fight together against the BJP and RSS attempts,” he said.
The RSS wants to establish a “Hindu Rashtra”, Siddaramaiah said, adding that such an idea should neither be realised nor allowed to succeed.
“We have always stood for pluralism,” he said, stressing the importance of ideological commitment among party workers.
The former chief minister asserted that the Congress will come back to power in 2028 and that Rahul Gandhi should become prime minister in 2029.
