Rahul’s Kolar rally postponed again due to delay, disorder over candidates’ list

The much-anticipated rally by Rahul Gandhi in Kolar has been postponed for the fourth time – now to April 16 – with leaders on Saturday ascribing it to delay and disorder around the list of candidates as well as discontent among some communities over the party’s choices.

The delay in the call on the Kolar seat, which Siddaramaiah wants as his second seat to contest, as well as a bitter fight among Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and the former Chief Minister over the nominees in 43 seats has also weighed on election managers in postponing the rally once again.

Shivakumar said in Bengaluru, "We had requested Rahul Gandhi to postpone the public meeting by a week and he gave his consent."

Congress had chosen Kolar as Rahul’s launch pad for the Assembly election with a specific political messaging, as it was in this Karnataka town where he made the controversial speech that ended in his conviction in a defamation case and subsequent disqualification from Lok Sabha. This would also be his first public engagement after the disqualification.

Read | Karnataka polls: Congress to raise more state issues in campaigns

The party had earlier decided to hold the rally on April 5, which was rescheduled to the next day. Then it was changed to April 9 and again rescheduled to April 10. However, the delay in the Congress list – candidates for 58 seats are pending – has also prompted a rethink.

A senior Congress leader said they could not bring Rahul at this point as the candidate list is not ready for all the seats, especially four seats in neighbouring districts. This also includes the candidate for the Kolar seat, which the former Chief Minister eyes.

Sources said if the party decides to field Siddaramaiah in the second seat, then Rahul could announce it in the rally but such a decision could not come in the next two days. “How can we have a rally in Kolar without a candidate? Even if it is not Siddaramaiah, we need a candidate there before the rally,” a senior leader said.

The party is also a little worried about the unrest within the Muslim community over the possible choice of candidates in certain seats like Chickpet and Raichur where they are in substantial numbers.

In Kolar, sources said, the Muslims are in decisive numbers and the community leaders have indicated that they are unhappy with the leadership and could even be not enthusiastic about participating in the rally.

Incidentally, a section of the community leaders are learnt to have met top JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Saturday and the latter has assured them to honour their demands, adding to Congress’ discomfiture though the party expects that it would benefit from the scrapping of 4 per cent quota to Muslims.