Cong MLAs irate over new turf club chairman's 'BJP ties'

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Some Congress MLAs have complained to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the new appointee to the post of the chairman of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC).

The lawmakers from the Grand Old Party claim that Arvind Raghavan who was picked for the post, and by extension, the senior steward’s position, on Wednesday, has ties to the BJP.

The process of appointment of the BTC chairman is that the State government usually just recommends a name, which is then approved. Now some legislators from the ruling party have raised the grouse that a Congress government ought not to appoint someone with a relationship with the saffron party.

Ironically, it was a senior Congress MLA who recommended Raghavan to the CM before his name was approved.

Now, other party MLAs insist that Siddaramaiah should intercede and appoint someone else. The BTC was established during the colonial era back in 1920 in the spacious High Grounds of the city.