Udupi: Dinesh Gundu Rao, president, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said on Wednesday that the State Cabinet would be expanded on December 22.

Speaking to mediapersons at Rajiv Gandhi National Academy of Political Education at Tenka Yermal in Udupi district, Mr. Rao said there was no need for confusion with regard to the expansion of the Cabinet.

To a query, he said the Congress and JD(S) would fight the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls together in the State. Both these parties together would win more than 20 parliamentary seats. “The BJP remembered the issue of construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya only when the parliamentary polls were nearing. Nobody was opposed to the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. But the matter was in the Supreme Court. Yet the BJP was trying to mislead the people,” he said.

Asked whether the Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar was a power centre in the party, Mr. Rao said that all leaders were powerful in the Congress. But there was no scope for dictatorship in the party as was seen in the BJP. All leaders in the BJP had to bow to the diktats of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.

To a question, he said that the Congress and JD(S) were rivals in Mysuru, Hassan and Mandya districts. Hence, there was some confusion among workers there. But this would be set right, he said.

Under the Shakti scheme of the Congress, nearly nine lakh workers had been registered. The State Congress unit was at the top in the registration of the workers in the country. Booth-level workers were being trained under this scheme, he said.

Party workers, office-bearers at all levels and even elected representatives would be trained in strengthening party organisation and facing Lok Sabha polls at the academy of political education in the coming days. The training would also focus on countering the false propaganda of the BJP, developing leadership qualities and informing about the programmes of the party, he said.

Replying to a question, Mr. Rao said that he would bring the issue of toll collection at Hejmady and Sasthan on National Highway 66 and the proposed toll plaza at Belman on State Highway 1 to the notice of the Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna.

Gopal Bhandary and Pramod Madhwaraj, MLAs, were present.