Factionalism comes to fore during Siddu’s visit to Kolar

District Cong split between camps of former minister Muniyappa and former Speaker  Ramesh Kumar; Muniyappa skips programme to welcome former CM

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Differences in the Kolar unit of the Congress party have come to the fore with former Union Minister, K.H. Muniyappa and his supporters staying away when Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Siddaramaiah visited the district on Wednesday.

Siddaramaiah, along with Hosakote Congress MLA Sharath Bachegowda, Srinivasapura MLA K.R.Ramesh Kumar and MLC Nasir Ahmed, were in Kolar to inspect the damage caused to standing crops due to unseasonal rains in the last one week. But Muniyappa gave the former CM’s programme a miss maybe because of his political rivalry with former Speaker Ramesh Kumar. It is an open secret that the Congress is a divided house in Kolar with two factions led by Ramesh Kumar and Muniyappa at loggerheads.

A Congress leader pleading anonymity told News Trail that the alleged differences are not new and have been there for many years. This led to a Congress drubbing in the 2018 Assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. For the first time, BJP candidate, S. Muniswamy, won from Kolar constituency defeating Muniyappa who has the credit of representing Kolar constituency a record five times.

The former Union minister had blamed local Congress leaders for conspiring to defeat him by joining hands with his rivals. Since then, the two leaders do not see eye to eye and have never shared a dais. Efforts by KPCC President D.K. Shivakumar to unite them have failed.

With Ramesh Kumar accompanying Siddaramaiah, Muniyappa and the District Congress President preferred to remain absent at the programme to receive the former CM. The absence of these important leaders during the visit of the CLP leader took the sheen away from the visit.

Kolar has been a strong fortress of the Congress but factionalism in the district unit has severely affected its electoral prospects. Siddaramaiah too looked embarrassed and is likely to take up the factionalism with Shivakumar to ensure a patch-up between the two leaders atleast before the 2023 Assembly polls.