Fearing rebellion, Cong puts off meet to select candidates

Fearing that its move would trigger rebellion, the Congress, on Saturday, abruptly cancelled the scheduled meeting of screening committee chairman Luizunho Faleiro with the district unit presidents on the selection of candidates for the Assembly elections in the State.

Luizunho, along with Union Sports Minister Jitendra Singh, was scheduled to hold a day-long meeting in Bangalore. The party high command had scheduled the meeting following a section of State leaders complaining about the way the KPCC election committee chaired by Madhusudan Mistry prepared the list of probable candidates recently.

Sources said some senior leaders belonging to Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities had complained to the high command that the election committee had not given adequate representation to their communities. Many State leaders have been camping in Delhi for the last few days to mount pressure on the high command on selection of candidates.

However, the high command decided to call off the meeting lest it would lead to rebellion in the party. The election committee had already consulted the district presidents. The screening committee holding second round of consultation would send a wrong message. It may also lead to rebellion. So the meeting was cancelled at the last minute. Instead, the party has decided to resolve the issue at the Delhi level, sources said.

The screening committee meeting is scheduled to be held on March 25, 26 and 27 in Delhi to prepare the list of probable candidates. Besides Faleiro, Jitendra Singh, Mistry, KPCC chief G Parameshwara and legislature party leader Siddaramaiah are the committee’s other members. The committee will submit the list to the party chief Sonia Gandhi. The list will be released in the first week of April.