New Delhi, April 2: The Congress has decided to work on winning over Dalit and tribal votes after Rahul Gandhi’s “successful” trip to Karnataka, state party chief M. Mallikarjuna Kharge said.

The Election Commission today announced that the Karnataka polls would be held on May 10, 16 and 22 and counting on May 25. The Congress is expected to hold a strategy meet in a day or two.

Sonia Gandhi has told party colleagues to give their best in Karnataka as the Congress has to break the jinx of defeats it suffered in 2007. A win would give workers a leg-up before the November state polls.

In Karnataka, the fight could be three-cornered or even four-cornered in places. But Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, that go to the polls next, will see the Congress pitted directly against the BJP.

The Congress is unlikely to project a chief minister candidate in Karnataka and will place Kharge in the frontline with S.M. Krishna. Siddharamaiah, who left the Janata Dal (Secular) for the Congress, will share space with them.

The party is hoping Siddharamaiah’s presence will firm up a “near-perfect” caste axis — he is from the backward Kuruba caste, Kharge is a Dalit and Krishna is a Vokkaliga.