5 legislators resent Kolar seat for Muniyappa kin

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Five Congress legislators on Wednesday threatened to resign if senior party leader and Minister K H Muniyappa's son-inlaw Chikka Peddanna was given a ticket to contest from Kolar in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, bringing into open the divisions in the outfit.

The party is yet to announce its candidate in the segment, currently held by the BJP.

The five are opposed to Peddanna's candidature, which would give representation for the Left sect of Scheduled Castes.

The three MLAs from Kolar district -- Kothur G Manjunath (Kolar), K Y Nanjegowda (Malur) and MC Sudhakar (Chintamani) -- and two MLCs -- Anil Kumar and Naseer Ahmed (the political secretary to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah) -- want the ticket to be given to a candidate from Right sect of Scheduled Castes.

Sudhakar is the Higher Education Minister in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet. S N Narayanaswamy (Bangarapet), another Congress MLA from the district, too said the ticket should be given to SC Right candidate, and that he will decide on his move, once the party decides on the Kolar ticket.

Many see it as pressure tactics on the part of a section of Congress leaders in Kolar against Muniyappa and his "family politics".

The two MLCs met Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti and showed their resignation letters to journalists.

However, the legislators later said they have decided to wait following instructions from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the party state President D K Shivakumar on their future course of action.

Nanjegowda said the legislators had shared their opinion with the high command.

He said, "Muniyappa is now a Minister, one of his daughters Roopakala Shashidhar is currently a MLA, so we said the ticket should not be given to their family.''