BENGALURU: The rebellion in Ramanagara Congress unit has now taken a serious turn with local leaders refusing to campaign for JD(S) candidate Anita Kumaraswamy in the ensuing Ramanagara assembly bypoll and threatening to field a rebel candidate if the Congress leadership fails to announce its candidate by October 14.The Ramanagara district Congress unit has rejected the party’s poll pact with JD(S) according to which the former has agreed to give up the seat and also Mandya Lok Sabha constituency for its coalition partner.
Senior Congress leader and party MLC C M Lingappa, who held a meeting with party workers in Ramanagara on Thursday, urged the party leadership to field a candidate against JD(S). “We will not campaign for JD(S). I am ready to commit suicide ... but will not campaign for JD(S). Congress has a strong base in the district and we have a fair chance of wining the bypoll. This is the opinion of the party workers. We will decide our future course of action if the party leadership fails to heed to the sentiments of party workers,” Lingappa said.
Senior party leader Iqbal Hussein, who was the Congress candidate from Ramanagara in the recent Assembly polls, too has threatened to defy the poll pact and enter the fray as a rebel. “I cannot ignore the opinion of party workers. I will take a decision on entering the fray depending on the response from party leadership on the demand to field our candidate,” Hussein said.
Supporters of Hussein laid siege to party office in Ramanagara and gheraoed Congress district president Gangadhar. They shouted slogans against Congress-JD(S) poll pact and the coalition government.
Some of the protesters turned unruly and vandalised the furniture in the office.