Hassan is an example of the new strategy in the Congress. Of the total seven names cleared in the first list of candidates for the coming parliamentary polls, the top brass of the KPCC have given a ticket to Shreyas Patel, grandson of former minister Puttaswamy Gowda and arch rival of the former prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda for Hassan.

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Both Vokkaliga leaders had crossed  swords several times and had been fierce opponents  in election after election.

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After the demise of Puttaswamy Gowda, the Congress Party faced a huge dilemma on who could fill his shoes. Leaders from the district like Shivaram and A. Manju who despite their anti-Deve Gowda stance, and no match for the Deve Gowda family, would not fly the Congress flag either.

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Shivaram is a vocal critic of the Congress Party. Manju not only lost against Prajwal Revanna of JDS in Hassan  while contesting on a BJP ticket, he buckled and later joined the JDS and became an MLA.

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But the 2023 Assembly polls threw up an interesting battle, with Shreyas Patel losing to  Revanna by just 3,500 votes. The Congress leaders, happy with his performance, believe he should be groomed, as he looks like the most promising young leader in the district, and one, who can carry on the mantle in the coming years. Shreyas, picked to battle Prajwal Revanna, a third generation member of the Deve Gowda family, in the coming election, the battle has begun.

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The Congress leaders do however admit that it will be tough for Patel to defeat Prajwal in this JDS fortress. But citing the case of a political novice like Tejaswini Gowda defeating Deve Gowda, Congress insiders say nothing is written in stone. Pointing to  D.K.Shivakumar defeating Deve Gowda in Kanakapura and journalist Pratap Simha defeating a senior Congress leader in Mysore- Kodagu, the Congress is banking on the waning popularity of the JDS in Hassan district and its unpopular alliance with the BJP, plus strong feelings against Prajwal, as working in favour of Shreyas Patel. The Congress party believes its vote bank of AHINDA plus youth votes could dent if not upset Prajwal's apple-cart.

In the 2023 assembly polls, the experiment of new faces definitely helped the Congress Party while adversely impacting the BJP which lost nearly 10-20 seats because it was unable to  launch a concerted campaign against the Congress' untested debutants. This experiment of the Congress Party fetched several new faces in many districts. The hilly district of Kodagu got two new leaders as did Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Ballari, Raichur, Vijayapura, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Hassan and Chitradurga.

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"We are trying to give the Grand Old Party a youthful makeover, and backing that in the campaign with our promised five guarantees and our track record in good governance," a Congress strategist said, adding "its an experiment, we will have to see if it works." Shreyas Patel, the first in the Congress laboratory of youthful makeovers.

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