BENGALURU: The Karnataka Youth Congress has a new president, Raksha Ramaiah, son of former Congress minister MR Seetharam. Raksha Ramaiah, who was earlier with the social media department of the party, was locked in a triangular fight with Mohammed Nalapad and HS Manjunath, with voters casting their ballots online for the first time, in a poll spread over three days.
Elections were held in the second week of January, and the results are being announced after about three weeks. Raksha Ramaiah, who got around 57,000 votes, was declared president though Mohammed Nalapad got around 64,000 votes, while H S Manjunath got only 18,000-plus votes.
Nalapad’s supporters raised strong objections because he received the higher number of votes, and sought to know on what grounds he had lost. They also criticised certain senior members of the party who they alleged had sabotaged the election process.
It is said that many of Nalapad’s votes were disqualified.
KPCC president D K Shivakumar told TNIE that he stands by whatever the party’s final decision.
Nalapad said that the party may have taken this decision because a case was pending against him.
“I know I have won because I got the largest number of votes,” he told TNIE, “I respect the Congress party.’’