Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah is confident the Congress will retain power in the 2018 assembly polls

New Delhi: Exuding confidence that the Congress will retain power in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said the ruling party will not solely rely on “failures of Opposition” to secure a victory in the 2018 assembly polls. The Congress will win the election on the development plank and get a “comfortable majority”, he said after discussing its poll strategy at a meeting called by party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. He said tickets will be distributed to candidates early this time and the party will give opportunity to youth, sitting MLAs and even first-timers who can secure victory, he added. [caption id=“attachment_3868181” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Siddaramaiha. PTI[/caption] “We are not dependent on failures of Opposition to win elections. We have confidence in our strength. We will not fight (elections) on failures of Opposition,” Siddaramaiah told reporters after the meeting with Gandhi. The party will return to power with “comfortable majority” in 2018, he said and added, “We will get seats more than 121 out of 223 that we got in the previous poll. We will get (them) on our own strength”. Asserting that the election will be fought under his leadership, Siddaramaiah said there is no “confusion” anymore within the party. On poll preparedness, he said out of the 54,000 booths in the state, the party has set up booth committees for 51,000 and the rest will be done shortly. Siddaramaiah said a programme has been initiated to take the state government’s work and achievements to doorstep of citizens, and about 1.5 crore booklets highlighting this will be distributed. “Also in the coming days, I will travel to each of the 224 constituencies to share our achievements. I plan to tour in December and January,” he said. The chief minister also dismissed allegations of corruption levelled by the BJP against his government, saying, “We need to talk responsibly.