Congress internal friction over MLC nominees out in open now

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Dissatisfaction within the Congress came to the fore again as party national spokesperson from Karnataka Sanket Yenagi went public with the fact that he wasn’t happy with the MLC nominations.

Yenagi didn’t specify that he was referring to the Council nominees in Karnataka but he did tweet in Kannada as well as English, pointing out that if the same continues, there’ll be n young leaders left.

“The party needs to create special opportunities for competent, well-educated, passionate and dedicated youth, rather than preferring only senior leaders and their family. There is no surprise, the party will have no young leaders if this continues,” Yenagi tweeted.

He has articulated views that were so far only whispered behind closed doors within the party.

Party workers are livid with the choices since none of them are youngsters, who they claim were largely ignored in the distribution of Assembly election tickets as well.

They say the choices include former ministers who have already enjoyed power and two sons of former Congress leaders. Tug of war over Council contenders Back in late July, three names were being finalized for as many Council seats.

One of them was a loyalist of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, MR Seetharam, who had served as minister for planning, statistics and science and technology during the CM’s first term.

The other two were choices of Deputy CM DK Shivakumar. The first had been an Enforcement Directorate officer, HP Sudham Das, who is the son of former Sathanur MLA Puttadasa.

The other was the son of former Union minister K Rahman Khan, Mansoor, who had served as the communications department incharge of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

Siddaramaiah, however, sought to displace Mansoor with another loyalist, actor-turned-politician Umashree, who had served as Minister for Women and Child Development from 2013 to 2018.

This upset Congress’ Muslim leaders who had been promised an MLC from the community for their stellar support in the May 10 Assembly elections. Seetharam would be accommodated under the education quota since he is part of the MS Ramaiah group of educational institutions.

Umashree would get in on the artist quota while Das, who joined the party a mere five months, would be the social service quota nominee.

The three names have reportedly been sent to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, who has asked Chief Secretary (CS) Vandita Sharma to asses Seetharam’s case as he has money laundering allegations against him.