BENGALURU: A massive political drama erupted in Karnataka over the Kolar Lok Sabha ticket in Congress, wherein at least 5 MLAs, including a sitting minister, and 2 MLCs (Members of Legislative Council) threatened to resign from the party over reports of Kolar ticket being given to Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa’s family.
Reports suggested that the Congress was considering Muniyappa’s son-in-law for the Kolar Lok Sabha seat.
The MLAs and the MLc’s alleged that the party distributes tickets within the family and said that since KH Muniyappa’s daughter was already an MLA, the ticket should not go to another relative of the same family.
“We want other people in the party to get a chance. We will talk to the Chief Minister later today. When he (KH Muniyappa) was here, we were affected by his style of functioning and faced hardship. There is a general feeling in the constituency that SC community is not being represented. We want a candidate from other than this family” state minister MC Sudhakar said.
The MLAs had initially indicated that they would approach assembly speaker UT Khadar with their resignations but only the two MLCs went to meet legislative council chairman Basavraj Horrati.
“They (2 MLCs) came and met me with their resignation written on a white paper only. I told them to write the resignation on their letterhead and give it. They have not submitted their resignations. They said they would call me after 8 pm today” Basavaraj Horatti said.
The man at the centre of the drama, KH Muniyappa a senior Congress leader and state minister said he would abide by the High command’s decision on the Kolar ticket.
“I will abide by the Congress party’s decisions. Let the party high command take the decision. When they defeated me the High Command did not take any action, the high command gave seat to them, I kept quiet. I wanted the party to for the government. I don’t want to speak on their decision, I am not embarrassing my party. I am a disciplined soldier of the party and will abide by the High Command decision” Muniyappa said.
The Congress has a tough fight in SC dominated Kolar with the BJP giving the seat to the JDS which has named Mallesh Babu as its candidate.
Karnataka, which has 28 Lok Sabha seats, will vote in two phases on April 26 and May 7.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and JD-S fought together against the BJP and the combine was decimated. The BJP had won a record 25 seats; Congress and JD-S won just one seat each.
The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will be held in seven phases, starting on April 19. The counting of votes is on June 4. (ANI)
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