BANGALORE: “Double standards” in the party prompted senior Congress leader Margaret Alva to come out against senior leaders, it is believed in party circles. The allegations have created ripples in the AICC in general and KPCC in particular. Though the issue had been discussed on several occasions in the closed-door meetings in the party it never got due importance.
“Probably considering this, she might have decided to go public with a hope to mobilise support,” an AICC leader said. A number of Congress leaders who refused to be named sympathised with Alva.
Her son Nivedit Alva was denied a ticket to contest the last Assembly election. The same was the story with some other senior leaders. When a few AICC leaders, in connivance with KPCC leaders, made a rule that the kin of Congress leaders should not be given tickets, Alva is said to have strongly protested and promised to strike at a right time.
“Now that AICC has relaxed the rule and given tickets to the kin of leaders in five states going for polls, she has openly criticised the double standards,” a senior leader who refused to be named told The Express.
He also believes that some of the tickets were “indeed sold,” during the Assembly polls. “It was an open secret how tickets were distributed,” another leader who still enjoy’s a good rapport with previous KPCC president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Alva is not the only leader whose son was denied the ticket. Former Union minister C K Jaffer Sharief’s grandson too was denied the ticket. The son-in-law of MP R L Jalappa in Chikkaballapur and MLC S M Shankar’s son in Maddur, were the other unlucky ones.
It is now interpreted that the rule was made in a hurry, only to deny tickets to the kin of a few leaders including Alva’s.
Another rule that was made was not to give tickets to any government official who had quit the service prior to the polls.
“Everyone knew why this rule was specifically introduced in Karnataka,” another leader said. Alva being a fighter has spoken out at a time when the rule was broken by allotting tickets to the kin of leaders in the northern states going for polls,” they pointed out.