KALABURAGI: After open infighting in Kolar, Congress disunity was in full public view at the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency. As party candidate Mansoor Ali Khan filed his nomination on Wednesday, many important leaders were conspicuously missing.
The first among the list was Shantinagar MLA NA Haris, whose son Mohammed Nalapad was an aspirant for the seat, second was Bangalore Central in-charge minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, third was Energy Minister KJ George, the fourth was Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and the fifth was political secretary to chief minister, Naseer Ahmed, who too was an aspirant for the seat.
Haris said his mother passed away, Dinesh Gundu Rao said he is district in-charge of Dakshina Kannada and had to be in Mangaluru, George excused himself saying he is in-charge of Udupi-Chikkamagaluru and Zameer Ahmed’s excuse was that he was away in Kerala.
The saving grace was Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad, PCC working president and MLC Saleem Ahmed and MLC Puttanna. AICC General Secretary Randeep Surjewala too joined at the last minute.
Mansoor Khan, however, maintained that there is no disunity in the party. He said he changed the dates at the last minute from April 2 to April 3 and that was the reason some leaders were not present.
On allegations of backstabbing within Congress, Saleem Ahmed said, “We will work unitedly for the victory of Mansoor Khan. He is well educated and is a new face.”
But a senior party leader admitted that there are differences among leaders.