Congress partymen attached to its Bangalore City District unit are tired of waiting. While most district units of the party have got a new president for over six months now, the City unit remains virtually headless for over a year.
The unit is unable to function as an effective opposition party in matters affecting the City, while the elected body in the BBMP too is defunct after its term ended earlier this year.
The Congress mandates a change in district unit chiefs every three years. However, the City unit has not seen a change for more than seven years. Incumbent president Ramalinga Reddy is in a limbo after other district unit presidents were changed long ago, except in Mangalore and Uttara Kannada, contend partymen.
Party’s Central leader Oscar Fernandes was here to meet eight City MLAs on Sunday. However, he was recalled to the capital in connection with UPA presidential nominee Pratibha Patil’s visit to Ahmedabad, and left without carrying out his mission.
In keeping with the party’s ‘one man, one post’ policy, no MLA has been appointed president of any district units. The principle of “shared responsibility” has been adhered to in the case of other district units and only non-MLAs appointed district president.
In Bangalore City, an exception is being mulled. The challenge is to find a consensus candidate as eight City MLAs are divided into three groups - one led by former ministers and ‘newcomers’ to the party - V Somanna and R Roshan Baig; second group led by Ramalinga Reddy; and third being first-time MLAs.
The second challenge is to find an MLA with experience and clean image. While Somanna and Baig are ‘newcomers’, Reddy suffers an anti-incumbency vote, Dinesh Gundu Rao, who stepped down as State Youth Congress President, is said to be ‘tainted’ as his name allegedly figures in a list of land encroachers, and M R Seetharam, an aspirant from M S Ramaiah educational institutions stable, is dubbed a ‘capitalist’.
Another worrying aspect is dissidence if Bangalore unit is made an exception to the ‘one man, one post’ rule.
The main tussle in finding ‘Mr Right’ is between AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad and Reddy.