Bengaluru: Less than 12 hours after he took to Twitter to announce his decision to quit the ruling Congress, Chikkaballapur MLA, Dr K. Sudhakar, on Friday reversed his decision, heeding to the advice of senior leaders.
He told the media after meeting transport minister R. Ramalinga Reddy, KPCC working president, Dinesh Gundu Rao and K H Muniyappa, former Union minister and Member of Parliament (Kolar): "I was pained by the malicious campaign launched against my father, Keshav Reddy, who has been serving the party for the last four decades. Now, he is the president of Chikkaballpur Zilla Panchayat. A senior leader of our party has made allegations against him which are far from the truth. Therefore, I felt genuinely hurt by these kind of allegations and announced my decision to quit the party. When one of the senior leaders of our party made allegations and demanded that my father must resign as Zilla Panchayat president, I announced my decision to quit. I actually felt that I should leave this party immediately."
He, however, said he would respect senior Congress leaders like Mr Dinesh Gundu Rao, Mr Ramalinga Reddy and Mr Muniyappa who advised him not to take hasty decision.
"I am not a power monger, but am associated with this party to serve the people and uphold democratic values," he added.
Frayed ties with Veerappa Moily led to outburst
Dr Sudhakar had evidently upset senior leaders including former CM and MP, Mr M Veerappa Moily, with his outburst and threat to quit the party. Sources in Congress said Dr Sudhakar had been "grossly interfering" in various constituencies in Chikkaballapur particularly after his father, Keshava Reddy, was elected president of Zilla Panchayat. "From the beginning various leaders in the district were unhappy with the fact that Mr Keshav Reddy was being appointed as ZP president. It was Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, who brokered peace in the beginning and thus paved the way for Mr Keshav Reddy's appointment two years ago on the condition that the latter would quit after he completing his term of two and half years. The rival camp decided to raise this issue when Dr Sudhakar is learnt to have dishonoured the pact.
