Shyam Sundar Vattam| DC
Bengaluru, May 1
Worryingly, for the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, a video has surfaced showing all former Congress legislators of Mandya at a dinner hosted by independent candidate of the constituency, Sumalatha Ambareesh at a private hotel in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
The video, which has gone viral, shows all ex-Congress legislators of Mandya district, N Cheluvarayaswamy, Magadi Balakrishna, P M Narendraswamy and Chandrashekar, Bengaluru city Youth Congress president, Raghuveer Gowda, and other leaders like Ganiga Ravi, and Malavalli Shivaram , a close associate of former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah having dinner with Ms Sumalatha at the hotel.
It seems to indicate that the Mandya Congress leaders had campaigned for Ms Sumalatha during the Lok Sabha poll despite a stern warning from their party bosses against doing so. Not surprisingly, it is reported to have upset Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son, Nikhil, who is hoping to make his political debut from the constituency.
It is an open secret that all the Mandya Congress leaders, except former minister, M S Atmananda, had kept away from the joint campaign, including a road show of Congress president, Rahul Gandhi in K R Nagar. They had turned rebellious after Mr Kumaraswamy said he didn't want the support of 'backstabbers' and would not plead with them to work for his son. Mr Cheluvarayaswamy and his friends had then proceeded to work for Ms Sumalatha with their followers campaigning for her in all eight Assembly constituencies of the district. The expulsion of seven block presidents didn't deter them either.
Efforts by Mr Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister, Dr G Parameshwar, KPCC president, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Water Resources Minister, D K Shivakumar to persuade them to back Mr Nikhil Kumaraswamy proved futile.
It is said that before attending the dinner, the Mandya Congress leaders met Mr Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru. One of them told Deccan Chronicle it was a courtesy call. "Our leader is Siddaramaiah, not Kumaraswamy," he asserted.
