Gearing up for the campaigning for the May Assembly elections in Karnataka, Congress has drafted senior party leaders Vayalar Ravi, Jairam Ramesh and Kapil Sibal to fine-tune strategy for the polls.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president M Mallikarjuna Kharge said on Wednesday that the three leaders would actively involve in chalking out its action-plan to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal-Secular.

They will work with the incharge of party affairs Prithviraj Chavan.

The Congress has already brought back into the state politics former chief minister S M Krishna, who guided the party to a thumping victory in 1999.

Krishna was serving as Maharashtra governor prior to his return.

Bharatiya Janata Party's "master strategist" Arun Jaitely is already on the job to prepare and guide the state unit to make a strong bid to gain majority on its own in the three-phase elections.

Another senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler a few days ago visited some constituencies in Bengaluru, which has 28 Assembly segments, and has given his feedback on how the party should approach the hustings.

Meanwhile, the Congress held its first preliminary meeting to pick the candidates for the elections.

"We have received 2,800 applications," Kharge said ahead of the meeting. "We should come out with the first list of candidates by April 16," he added.

Party leaders in private said "winnability" was the sole criteria in choosing its nominees.

The BJP is expected to release its first list on Thursday. JD-S leaders on the other hand say "minus JD-S, no party will be able to form a government."