Mysuru: Internal bickering within the ruling Congress in Mandya has taken another twist with senior Congress leader, Kabballi Anand, a close confidant of housing minister M H Ambarish, turning against his leader for reportedly denying ‘B’ form to his wife who wanted to contest from Holalu zilla panchayat.
On Monday, he raised slogans against Mr Ambarish and alleged, “Ambarish has a big ego because of his popularity as a film star. He had promised to give ‘B’ form to my wife, Rani but he has betrayed our trust in him.
"Ambarish lost Assembly Elections when he contested from Srirangapatna, but won in Mandya. Now he is neglecting sincere party workers of Mandya, sitting in Bengaluru.
"He has neglected even district Congress president and is selling ‘B’ forms through his supporter Amaravathi Chandrashekar. We will boycott campaign tour of Ambarish.”
Today was the last day for filing nominations for the second phase of zilla panchayat elections which would be held on February 20.
Mr Kabballi Anand’s wife Rani, however, entered the fray as a rebel candidate.
Meanwhile, Congress party workers in Mandya have rebelled against Ravindra Srikantaiah of Srirangpatna constituency and arch rival of Mr Ambarish.
They alleged that he has succeeded in getting ‘B’ forms for people of his choice for zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections.
Some supporters of the minister have also submitted nomination papers as rebel candidates.
The workers lamented that senior leaders of the Congress have not made any attempt to resolve infighting in the local unit of the party, thus making it easy for Janata Dal (Secular) to capture power in Mandya.
