Chairpersons of panels fume over ‘non-recognition by Big 2’

Surjewala is learnt to have told Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah not to make poll promises without first consulting the Committee concerned. It was only then did Dr G Parameshwar withdraw his resignation

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: With KPCC President DK Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah taking centre stage ahead of the State Assembly polls, chairpersons of various Committees of the KPCC are said to be unhappy over being “sidelined” by the duo.

KPCC Manifesto Committee Chairman Dr G Parameshwar strongly expressed this displeasure – by sending his resignation letter to the KPCC president, expressing “unhappiness about the numerous” promises made by Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah without considering the Committee concerned.

The AICC General Secretary and Karnataka Affairs incharge Ranjit Singh Surjewala intervened and convinced the former Deputy Chief Minister not to take the drastic step as it would impact the party ahead of the Assembly elections.

Surjewala is learnt to have told Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah not to make poll promises without first consulting the Committee concerned. It was only then did Dr G Parameshwar withdraw his resignation. There seems to be a lot of discontent among the State leaders over only two leaders, Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah hogging all the limelight while “neglecting all others”.

For instance, senior Congress leader and Babaleshwar MLA MB Patil has been made the KPCC Campaign Committee Chairman, but is not seen in any of its functions, while the participation of Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah is always there. He is also missing from the ongoing Yatra that Shivakumar kicked off.

The purpose of making Patil the Campaign Committee chairman was to woo the Lingayat and Veerashaiva votes, but is conspicuous with his absence from public meetings. This has given a feeling that he was made the chairman only for name-sake – to create the impression that a prominent Lingayat leader is incharge of the crucial Assembly elections.

Many Lingayat leaders are unhappy that no Lingayat has been made chief minister after Veerandra Patil and probably for this reason, Lingayats and Veerashaivas have been rallying behind the BJP. With chances of the Congress party coming to power “shining bright”, there seems to be a tough competition between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah on who the next chief minister will be.