Rebels threaten to mar Congress prospects

Riding high on the success of the ULB elections in March, the Congress party perhaps overshot its popularity charts among its ranks and even as the Wednesday deadline for filing nominations crept closer, a rebellion of sorts has ripped off all party discipline in at least four districts.

Four of its senior leaders, SM Krishna and Ambareesh in Mandya and old Mysore area, M Veerappa Moily in Chikkaballapur and Oscar Fernandes in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have been accused of favouritism in distribution of tickets in Mandya, Srirangapatna, Chikkaballapur, Mangalore North and Kapu constituencies in Udupi district, leaving the party squirming in embarrassment.

In Chikkaballapur, Moily has been accused of favouring Dr K Sudhakar over Congress strongman Anjanappa, on Tuesday witnessed riots in front of Congress office. Supporters of Anjanappa attacked the Congress party office, chased away employees, broke windows and destroyed furniture. They raised slogans against Moily and SM Krishna.

“Sudhakar is a new entrant to the party and has been given the seat that, on the basis of seniority, belonged to me. I had been leading the party in Chikkaballapur for over a decade,” Anjanappa told dna. A few of his followers were of the opinion that this change will cost the party the support of Anjanappa’s followers. Sudhakar, however, felt that the party chose him to infuse new blood into the party ranks. “If the party has chosen me and if the elders have confidence in my candidature they must have a valid reason.”

But the most intense fight over the tickets is on in Mandya, Ambareesh and Krishna were being blamed for the confusion that has arisen in selecting candidates for Mandya and Srirangapatnam.

“The entry of Ambareesh into the field has changed the prospects of Congress party. He has used his power with the state party leaders to the withdrawal of the ticket already given to Ravindra Srikantaiah, the official candidate of Mandya district unit for Srirangapatnam constituency and gave it Lingaraju, which has angered the party ranks and will affect party’s prospects in both Mandya and Srirangapatnam,” TS Satyananda, official spokesperson of the Congress party Mandya unit, told dna.

The reason for such a drastic move of the party to withdraw ticket to a candidate has been attributed to the rift between Ambareesh and SM Krishna.

In Mangalore city North (formerly Surathkal) constituency, the Congress faced yet another storm. The constituency is a minority-dominated constituency, but most of them voted the BJP, not for the party but party candidate Krishna Palemar. But this time, the Congress fielded Mohammad Bava, a realtor, against Palemar, himself a big-time real estate operator. It is not the love of minorities that the Congress has fielded Bava, but to replace Palemar as a representative of the builder and real estate lobby in the legislature, with Bava who is a Congressman.

Similar is the situation in Mangalore City South, where JR Lobo, former project director of KUIDFC and former commissioner of Mangalore city corporation, is backed by real estate operator and hotelier of Bangalore, Ronald Colaco.

@mraghuram12