Congress Council nominees irk many in party

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Internal friction has materialized within the state Congress’ ranks, this time over their choices for the nominated Council seats.

The three nominees who are slated to be put forward are former Minister MR Seetharam, son of former Union minister K Rahman Khan, Mansoor Ali Khan and exEnforcement Directorate officer HP Sudham Das.

Party workers complained that youth had been largely ignored in allocating tickets for the Assembly polls and had been shunned once again vis-a-vis Council nominations. Moreover, Khan’s nomination was down only to his father being a senior leader, they felt.

Some party workers even took to social media to express their dissatisfaction over the nominees.

However, it is to be noted that the nominee names haven’t been finalised and are likely to come up during the two All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting to be held in New Delhi in August first week under the chairmanship of party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

3 MLCs terms ended

The issue is that two Congress MLCs Mohan Kumar Kondajji and PR Ramesh saw their term end on May 17. Meanwhile another party MLC CM Lingappa’s term expired on June 8. Congress lacks a majority in the Council.

As a consequence, JD(S) and BJP’s MLCs blocked the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Bill in the Upper House. Therefore, the ruling party feels the need to bolster their numbers in the Council before they convene for the winter session in Belagavi to push legislations.

Seetharam has served as the MLA, MLC, and minister. Mansoor on the other hand has served in the communications department of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

Meanwhile, Das is the son of two-time Sathanur (pre-delimitation) MLA H Puttadasa. Shivakumar is said to have brought Das to the party with the promise of an MLC nomination due to his technical expertise. Chief Minister Siddarmaiah is said to favour former minister Umashree for Council membership but the plan has been put on the back burner.

Discontent among MLAs

The development comes in the backdrop of the news getting out that senior Congress MLA from Aland BR Patil alongside other lawmakers had written to Siddaramaiah that ministers were being “unresponsive” towards them.

This was followed up by Deputy CM DK Shivakumar admitting that they didn’t have enough funds for infrastructure projects owing to the diversion of at least Rs 40,000 crores toward the five “guarantees”.

A Congress Legislature Party meeting was held on Thursday when MLAs like Patil had threatened to walk out as Siddaramaiah had to assure them that he’d be accessible to them.

Boseraju too faced resistance

It is to be noted that many in the party hadn’t been happy over Congress’ decision to name NS Boseraju to the Cabinet first as the Minister for Minor Irrigation and Science and Technology and then to the Council as a candidate back in June.

The other candidates from the party were former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and Tippannappa Kamaknoor. Sections in the party felt that Boseraju had been unduly favoured.