BENGALURU: AICC General Secretary and state in-charge K C Venugopal on Tuesday met district Congress committee leaders from Chikkaballapur, Ballari, Vijayapura and Hassan. Some of the district in-charge ministers also attended the meetings.
In what turned out to be a continuation of meetings held last month, Venugopal interacted with leaders from these districts, where workers had expressed differences with others in the area. Both Lad brothers Anil and Santhosh have been told in no uncertain terms to bury their differences and work towards strengthening the party’s prospects in Ballari. Venugopal has also promised the setting up of a coordination committee for the district and also placed a gag order on the brothers from airing their grievances in public.
While Santhosh Lad has refrained from making any statements against Anil, the latter has not been so kind and complained openly about Santhosh being made a minister the second time around and for being upgraded to the rank of a cabinet minister. Anil also did not attend the earlier round of talks with Venugopal, as he was travelling abroad.
Chkkaballapur MP Veerappa Moily also took part in the consultations held with leaders from Chikkaballapur. Former Bagepalli MLA N Sampangi had complained about Moily’s efforts to bring Krishna Reddy, who had contested the assembly election as an independent in the district into the Congress fold, after Reddy assisted the Congress during the zilla panchayat polls. Venugopal is said to have told the two to sort out the issue.
Basavana Bagewadi MLA Shivananda S Patil and Minister and MLA (Babaleshwar) M B Patil from Vijayapura, who have been at loggerheads over development works in the districts have been told to strictly lay off each others’ constituencies.
Venugopal met leaders from Hassan. Leaders like minister A Manju and DCC president B Shivaram met him. A faction of the district Congress had complained that Manju and Shivaram had been accommodating only Vokkaligas on committees.