Post-poll pangs: BC Patil, Lingappa hit out at Cong

The knives are out for the Congress as disgruntled leaders on Saturday made their qualms clear following the party’s rout in the Lok Sabha election.

Hirekerur legislator B C Patil, who has been disgruntled for quite some time now for not being made a minister, said the Congress lost badly because it had neglected the Lingayats. “What hit us the most was that the party has completely neglected the Lingayats, a prominent community in the state,” Patil, a Lingayat himself, told reporters.

He also minced no words while targeting Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. “In north Karnataka, we didn’t win a single seat because the region has been completely neglected under this administration. North Karnataka is getting step-motherly treatment,” he said. To a question on whether Kumaraswamy’s leadership was the reason for the Congress’ debacle, Patil said: “There’s a live example now. I don’t need to say it.”

Congress MLC C M Lingappa directly blamed the party’s alliance with the JD(S) for the Lok Sabha debacle. “Only the JD(S) has benefited from the alliance. The regional party spent crores, but could not win more than one seat,” he said.

“The JD(S) initially demanded 12 seats and got seven after a hard bargain. It wanted to contest from north Karnataka where it had no base and eventually fielded our men in two seats. Because of this, the Congress lost its ground,” he added.

For long, Lingappa has argued that the alliance with the JD(S) was not in the Congress’ best interests. He had openly revolted the party’s decision to concede the Ramanagara assembly constituency to the JD(S) during the bye-election, last year.

Soon after the results came out, senior leader and Revenue Minister R V Deshpande expressed his dismay over the alliance with the JD(S).