Bengaluru: Dozens of aspirants, some seeking ministerial berths and others a ticket for forthcoming polls to the Legislative Council are knocking on the doors of the who’s who of Congress in New Delhi.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior Congress leader from Karnataka remarked, “There are almost 100 candidates camping in Delhi, and all of them lobbying with leaders to get their support to enter the fray in elections to the Legislative Council elections. The Congress could win nine seats, five by way of nominations under various categories, and four from the Assembly.”
The leader said some leaders have also landed in Delhi to lobby for their nominees, while others have come with the sole intention of scuttling the chances of those opposed to them or with whom they have serious differences. Those belonging to the last category have been trying to spread canards about some aspirants and also talk to central leaders about why the ruling party managed to win only nine out of 28 Lok Sabha seats.
The leader pointed out that another group of ministerial aspirants, led by former ministers K. B. Koliwad and Malikayya Guttedar, are camping in Delhi to impress upon central leaders the need for a reshuffle of the cabinet headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
“Their one-point agenda seems to be to drive home the point that the party’s poor performance was the result of irrational allocation of cabinet portfolios. They have been arguing that north Karnataka region, which whole-heartedly supported the Congress only a year ago in the Assembly elections, did not vote for the party in Lok Sabha elections because of poor representation to the region,” the leader added.
When contacted, Mr. Koliwad said his friends and he are in Delhi to meet central leaders and inform them about why the party lost miserably and to seek a fair representation for every caste, community and region in the in the cabinet.
“We cannot ignore elections in India because they are manifestation of representation to caste, community, language and region. If we miss any one, we are bound to pay a heavy price. Therefore, we have come here to convince the high command about need for inducting ministers from those districts which are not represented in the cabinet,” he added.
