It’s seniors vs juniors for KPCC chief’s post

A tussle has broken out among senior and junior leaders in the Karnataka Congress for the coveted post of the state unit president.

A delegation of members of Parliament from Karnataka have sought a meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi to brief him about the need to appoint a “senior” leader as the state unit president.

Seven-term MP and former union minister K H Muniyappa has thrown his hat in the ring for the post of the KPCC president amid reports that Dinesh Gundu Rao has emerged as the frontrunner for the coveted post.

A section of seniors argue that a seasoned leader should be appointed as the KPCC chief as he would have to deal with former prime minister and JD(U) supremo H D Deve Gowda as well as well-entrenched veterans within the party.

“I want to ensure that the Congress performs well in the Lok Sabha elections in the state and wish to see Rahul Gandhi become prime minister. I am ready to become the KPCC president, if the Congress president desires so,” Muniyappa told a group of reporters here.

Muniyappa belongs to the Left group among the Dalits, a community whose leader has never become a KPCC president or a Cabinet minister at the Centre.

At a meeting of Karnataka MPs convened by Parameshwara on Sunday last, senior leader
B K Hariprasad is understood to have suggested Muniyappa’s name for the KPCC president’s post.

Though Mallikarjun Kharge and G Parameshwara have held the KPCC president’s post, they belong to the Right group among Dalits which is well represented in the party as well as the government, a senior leader claimed.

A section of seniors are also upset at the central leadership giving in to counsel of young leaders such as Gundu Rao and Krishna Byre Gowda in resolving the intra-party differences that had arisen over the denial of ministerial berth to Lingayat leader M B Patil.