JOIN USWithin 24 hours of the Congress leaders putting up a huge show of unity in Mandya in favour of the party candidate Ramya, a separate roadshow and a public meeting was held by supporters of KPCC member Ravindra Srikantaiah, in Srirangapatna, on Tuesday.
Former chief minister S M Krishna, who shook hands with district in-charge Minister Ambarish only on Monday, during the public meeting at Silver Jubilee Park, indirectly took a dig at the latter, by recalling the outcome of the Srirangapatna Assembly election last year.
“I am overwhelmed at the gathering here. With so many people gathered here, Srirangapatna should have had a Congress MLA. However, due to the wrong decisions of a few leaders, we lost the seat miserably,” he said.
It has to be recalled that ticket for Ravindra Srikantaiah was withdrawn as Ambarish insisted on issuing ticket to his follower S L Lingaraju. While the sitting MLA Ramesh Babu Bandisiddegowda of the JD(S) secured 56,000 votes, the official Congress candidate Lingaraju got 27,000 votes. Ravindra Srikantaiah, as an Independent (Congress rebel), managed to wrest 41,000 votes.
During the Srirangapatna show, there were no pictures of Ambarish on either posters or banners. Those identified with the so-called Ambarish faction abstained from the meeting. Rather, they were involved in separate canvassing in favour of Ramya, in Srirangapatna town itself.