Dissidence brewing in Bagalkot Congress

Bengaluru, 27 May 2018 [Fik/News Sources]: Although former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah managed to win from Badami by a slender margin of around 2,000 votes, dissidence is brewing in the Bagalkot district unit of the Congress with four party legislators losing the elections from the region.

The defeated legislators are preparing to lodge a complaint with the party high command against Mr S R Patil, KPCC working president for North Karnataka and former minister, R B Timmapur, who are members of the Legislative council as they had camped in Badami to ensure the victory of Mr Siddaramaiah in the face of a tough challenge from Mr B Sriramulu of the BJP.

The former legislators claim that both leaders  failed to stop defection and persuade rebel leaders to withdraw their nomination in Bilagi, Mudhol, Bagalkot, Terdal and Hungund constituencies where they and  former minister, Umashri were defeated.

Moreover, they point out that these Congress leaders failed to retain former Bagalkot MLA, P H Pujar, who joined the BJP just a week before the election and  allege they failed to keep intact the party’s scheduled caste and other backward communities votebank.

Their disappointment is more acute as they believed that the party would get a boost after Mr Siddaaramaiah entered the fray from Badami. But instead the Congress suffered a severe jolt in the district.

“The district Congress leaders are responsible for my defeat in the Assembly elections. They failed to campaign in my constituency and concentrated only on Badami. Therefore, I will lodge a complaint against them with the Congress high command,” said former Hungund MLA, Vijayanand Kashappanavar, who lost by a margin of 5,000 votes.