Infighting sinks Congress in Kolar

Kolar, NT Bureau: Congress suffered a setback in the Kolar Lok Sabha seat, where their candidate KV Gowtham was defeated by JD(S)' M Mallesh Babu. Babu, a Lambani, defeated Gowtham by 71,388 votes.

The JD(S) man polled 6,91,481 votes while Gowtham gathered 6,20,093 votes. Kolar is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs). Infighting was blamed for the loss. Gowtham, who comes from the ritually left hand Dalit castes or Madigas.

He was a compromise candidate because the party decided against appeasing either one of two rival internal factions who were pushing for their own men. The result was that neither faction backed Gowtham fully, leading to his loss.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa wanted the Kolar ticket for his son-in-law KG Chikkapedanna.

The other faction was that of former Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar, who wanted the ticket to be given to CM Muniyappa, who belongs to a ritually right hand Dalit caste, referring to Holeyas or any of its sub-castes.

Gowtham is the Bengaluru Central district Congress committee president and the son of former Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Mayor KV Vijay Kumar. Although Gowtham is based in Bengaluru, he has roots in Kolar district.