BENGALURU: With the defeat of Congress in all the Lok Sabha constituencies of Bengaluru, workers and leaders from the party have demanded that some former corporators and leaders who had taken the responsibility for campaigning should be asked to step down, making way for loyal and honest workers.
Rajeev Gowda, the defeated candidate from Bangalore North, said it was a failure of collective leadership and also, the BJP-JDS coalition helped in the consolidation of anti-Congress votes. Mansoor Ali Khan, who gave jitters to PC Mohan in Bangalore Central, claimed that poor election management at the Mahadevapura Assembly segment led to his defeat.
With these results, sources said, Bengaluru North Congress president Abdul Wajid and Bengaluru Central president Uday Kumar may find it difficult to get tickets to contest the upcoming BBMP elections as they failed to connect with party workers across the constituency. “Both leaders are not well connected with workers in other segments and have not grown beyond their respective wards. Giving them responsibility proved costly to the party,” Congress workers said.
BJP leaders, meanwhile, demanded the resignation of ministers concerned to step down taking moral responsibility for the defeat. “The BJP candidates in North and South constituencies won with a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes. This indicated that ministers and former corporators who worked for Congress failed to make any impact. They are responsible for the defeat of their candidates and should take moral responsibility.
In Krishna Byregowda’s Assembly constituency Byatarayanapura, which falls under the North segment, BJP got 41,000 lead. Similarly, in the Yeshwanthpur Assembly segment, BJP rebel MLA ST Somashekar, who cross-voted during the MLC polls, failed to prevent a BJP surge as the saffron party got a lead with 1.20 lakh votes,” said Harish, president of BJP Bengaluru North.
He said BJP gained in Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao’s Gandhinagar Assembly segment, part of Bengaluru Central, with a lead of 23,000 votes. “Dinesh should take responsibility for the Congress candidate’s defeat. Ministers, former corporators and parliamentary segment presidents should step down,” Harish added.
Uday Kumar, Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency Congress president and former corporator of Hagadur ward, blamed the non-cooperation of the defeated MLA candidate in Mahadevapura. He also alleged that many officials who are in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency for the last 15 years worked in favour of BJP.
Sources said that many aspirants for BBMP elections who did not work will be denied tickets as the party had already said that those who do not help the party secure a good lead in the LS elections will not be considered.