Anger spills out as seniors attack Cong leadership

The Congress’ state election committee meeting on Thursday saw senior leaders venting their anger against the leadership, especially Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah for "unilateral" decision-making, exposing cracks within the party ahead of the crucial bypolls.

The meeting was held to screen candidates for the bypolls to 15 Assembly segments under AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal. The bypolls that were scheduled for October 21 now stand deferred.

According to sources, former Union minister K H Muniyappa and Rajya Sabha member B K Hariprasad led the attack on the leadership, accusing them of "neglecting" seniors, a grouse many within the party have held for long.

The latent anger within the seniors came out when they found that a list of candidates to be fielded in the upcoming bypolls was almost finalised. The senior leaders, therefore, asked the leadership why they were even invited.

Muniyappa, a 7-time MP who tasted defeat in the recent Lok Sabha polls from Kolar, is said to have targeted Srinivasapura MLA K R Ramesh Kumar for his loss. Hariprasad is then understood to have pointed out that no one in the party was made accountable for the losses in the 2018 Assembly, 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the recent collapse of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in what was seen as an attack on Siddaramaiah.

"And still, decisions continue to be taken unilaterally. So, we told the leadership to remove us from various committees because our opinions are not considered anyway," one of the disgruntled seniors said.

The outburst is widely seen as a tussle between the natives and outsiders within the Congress, with homegrown leaders up in arms against the "growing dominance" of Siddaramaiah, who was with the JD(S) till 2005.

Amid the seniors’ onslaught, sources said Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao offered to resign. Speaking to reporters later, Rao played down the episode. "There will be discussions. Shouldn’t we discuss even? What else should we do inside? There will be opinions and counter opinions. Shouldn’t there be differing voices?" he said.

The absence of former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara at the meeting further strengthened the notion that all is not well in the party. Venugopal and Rao said Parameshwara, who is said to be at odds with Siddaramaiah, did not come as he had another engagement and refuted the view that there is a feud.