JOIN USLingayat Cong leaders to approach Sonia Gandhi
A section of Lingayat legislators in the State Congress have once again upped the ante seeking replacement of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara.
One batch of legislators, including P M Ashok, B R Patil and H S Mahadevaprasad. left for New Delhi to mount pressure on central leaders on the issue of change of leadership in
the State.
Another batch of legislators, including senior leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who has been spearheading the ‘oust-Parameshwara’ campaign, B C Patil, Prakash Hukkeri, Basavaraj Patil and Amaregouda Bayyapura, will leave for the national capital on Monday.
They will seek an appointment with AICC President Sonia Gandhi to brief her on the importance of giving the president post to a Lingayat to win over the community votes.
They are also likely to seek the replacement of AICC state in-charge Madhusudhan Mistry.
The demand for replacement of Parameshwara, a dalit, with a Lingayat leader by community legislators has been on for some months now.
However, the campaign against the KPCC president has intensified once again following resentment over a list of party workers being prepared by Parameshwara to be appointed as in-charge for 224 Assembly constituencies, sources said.
The anti-Parameshwara group is upset with the KPCC president for preparing the list without consultation and filling it with candidates of his choice. The issue will be raised by the visiting legislators with the high command in New Delhi, the sources added.
The Congress legislators’ delegation have also sought appointments with Ahmed Patel, A K Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad in New Delhi. It will impress upon the central leaders that the party in its present organisational arrangement will not be able to defeat the BJP because of the ruling party’s resources and its clout with Lingayat mutts, a legislator said.
Taking note of the importance of the Lingayat community, the party high command on an earlier occasion had accommodated several leaders in the KPCC, besides making S R Patil the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.
In a related development, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah also left for New Delhi on Sunday. While Siddaramaiah said it was a personal visit, it is learnt that he had been summoned by the party high command to apprise them of the development in the State unit of the party.