JOIN USThe first meeting of the Congress Campaign Committee on Wednesday turned out to be a damp squib as a majority of its members skipped the meeting in view of the prevailing confusion over the selection of candidates for the Assembly elections.
Most of the senior leaders in the 56-member committee stayed away from the meeting held at the KPCC head office here. While most of them are still lobbying for tickets for their supporters in Delhi, some others are upset over being denied the tickets, one of the committee members said.
The committee is headed by senior leader Veeranna Mattikatti and comprises almost all top leaders of the State Congress, including all former chief ministers, the present and former union ministers, former KPCC presidents and the KPCC president and Congress legislature party leader.
Prominent among those who attended the meeting are the chairman Mattikatti, co-chairman D K Shivakumar and former union minister M H Ambareesh.
The committee has the responsibility to chalk out the plan for the party’s election campaign. However, with most of the prominent members keeping off the meeting, the committee held its meeting just about an hour. It was decided to list out popular programmes of the UPA government at the Centre and drawbacks of the ruling BJP in the State.
The committee, sources said, had scheduled its meeting for Wednesday under the impression that the candidates’ list would be released by March 30 and that all the confusion over ticket distribution would be over. But, the confusion as well as protests are continuing.
Immolation bid
On Wednesday, one of the protesters at the KPCC head office doused himself with kerosene and tried to immolate himself, seeking the ticket for Youth Congress leader K V Gowtam from C V Raman Nagar constituency in Bangalore. However, the police intervened and stopped him from immolating himself.
Hundreds of supporters of former MP Tejaswini Gowda staged a protest, demanding that their leader should be fielded from Bangalore South constituency.
The protest was held by her supporters to counter the one that was staged by some block Congress members from the constituency in the last two days, opposing her candidature.