Raksha Ramaiah to be Karnataka Youth Cong President till Jan 2022, Nalapad to take over later

Nalapad, who had secured more votes than Raksha Ramaiah was disqualified over an assault case against him earlier in 2018

After months of internal tussle, the Congress party has finally arrived at a compromise with regard to the Youth Congress election results in Karnataka.

The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) has decided that Raksha Ramaiah, who was declared as the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee in January this year, will continue to hold the post for one year until January 31, 2022. After this period, Mohammed Haris Nalapad, the other contender for the post, will take over, according to an official statement issued by IYC president B V Srinivas on Monday. The tenure of the Youth Congress President is for three years.

A conflict arose soon after the election results were announced in January this year as Nalapad, who had secured more votes (64,203) than Raksha Ramaiah (57,271) was disqualified over an assault case against him earlier in 2018.

According to the power sharing formula announced on Monday, Ramaiah will hold the post for one year while Nalapad gets a two year tenure. It was earlier expected that both the contenders would get an opportunity for eighteen months each. The tussle between the two Youth Congress leaders is also seen as a reflection of power struggle between senior Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar. While Ramaiah's candidature is believed to have been backed by Siddaramiah, Nalapad is backed by Shivakumar.

It is said that the ‘compromise’ happened after AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, held talks with both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar to arrive at a truce, which was followed by him convincing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to okay this settlement in the interest of the leaders' public image. Last week, a meeting was held to resolve the conflict in which Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar, B V Srinivas, Ramaiah and Nalapad took part.