Bengaluru: With too many senior Congress leaders aspiring to become Chief Minister after the 2018 Assembly elections, K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, has warned legislators not to indulge in speculation over who will occupy the seat and to fight elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The Congress has already decided to go to elections under the leadership of Mr. Siddaramaiah and the party high command and legislators would decide the next CM after elections, if the party secures a majority, Mr. Venugopal said at a meeting of the Congress Legislators’ Party (CLP) here on Friday.

In his pep talk to legislators, Mr. Venugopal told them to refrain from dropping names of the Chief Ministerial candidate during campaigning and to take the government’s programmes to each household in their constituency. Irked with the poor response from MLAs to the ‘Mane Manege Congress’ programme launched in Bengaluru last month, he warned that those failing to take interest in the party organisation would face action.

The programme has now been extended to three more weeks from October 15. Sources said that the KPCC secretaries in-charge of the Assembly constituencies and the party legislators have not formed the booth committees in many constituencies, and this triggered Mr. Venugopal to ask Mr. Siddaramaiah to convene the CLP meeting.

Mr. Siddaramaiah , who chaired a meeting of the CLP, said the booth-level committees have been formed and the district-level conventions would be organised to galvanise party workers. With good rain across the State, the public mood was in favour of the Congress, he said.