Bengaluru: Dissidence in the Congress against Legislature party leader Siddaramaiah, which was simmering for some time, exploded on Thursday with veteran leaders like former Union minister, K.H. Muniyappa and former AICC general secretary, B.K. Hariprasad launching a no-holds barred attack against both Mr Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao.
At one point Mr Rao even offered to resign from his post and dared state leaders to take charge of the party and run it without any hitch.
It appears that at one point, heated arguments between Mr Muniyappa and Mr Siddaramaiah turned so bitter that they even tried to raise their hands against each other. “The timely intervention of AICC general secretary, K.C. Venugopal and Mr Rao helped to calm the nerves of the warring leaders,” a source on the condition of anonymity disclosed to this newspaper.
The source added that ever since Mr Muniyappa lost in the Kolar Lok Sabha poll, he has turned a vocal critic of Mr Siddaramaiah and has used every platform to blame him for the Congress rout in the Lok Sabha elections.
According to the source, Mr Muniyappa who had been sulking for the last couple of months over his defeat, took severe objection to the KPCC's decision not to invite him for the selection of candidates for the Chikkaballapura assembly seat last week. Questioning this, Mr Muniyappa demanded to know why he had been left out.
Butting at this juncture, Mr Siddaramaiah snapped at him that the party had decided to convene meeting of leaders belonging to a particular district and as Mr Muniyappa belongs to Kolar district, he was not invited.
Infuriated by this explanation, Mr Muniyappa reportedly shot back that he was a state leader and a leader of a powerful community and he should have been invited for the selection process.
“Tell me if you (Siddaramaiah) have decided to restrict me to a district? Who gave you that authority? Are you the only leader of this party?,” Mr Muniyappa hit back. Angered by these remarks, Mr Siddaramaiah alleged that everyone at the meeting was aware of Mr Muniyappa's 'doublespeak' and how he had decimated the Congress in the undivided Kolar district.
Hearing this, Mr Muniyappa remarked that it was because of Siddaramaiah's highhandedness that the party lost badly in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Our party has been reduced to a single seat in 2019. It is all because of your ill designed plans. You are a curse for this party. Without hesitation I will say at any forum that it is you who defeated me in Kolar,” he retorted.
Mr Siddaramaiah than rose from his seat to address Muniyappa in the singular leading to a similar reaction from the former Union minister who claimed that that he had given a letter to initiate action against three leaders who had defeated him and had been deliberately pampered to do so by Siddaramaiah.
Other leaders sensing that the situation was turning from bad to worse, intervened and calmed them. It was then the turn of Mr Hariprasad to lash out at KPCC president Mr Rao for dancing to the tunes of a single person.
“I am deeply upset with the manner in which the KPCC is functioning. The KPCC president should be above politics. The KPCC does not even consider senior leaders like me for meetings where candidate selection take place. If things continue to happen in this manner, I will be forced to raise this issue with party central leaders,” he reportedly said.
Former deputy chief minister, Dr G. Parameshwar was conspicuous by his absence from the meeting.
