MYSURU: The latest trouble within the state Congress triggered by the recent Mysuru mayoral polls refuses to die down with former chief minister Siddaramaiah who is said to be upset with his party joining hands with JDS in the civic body cancelling his visit to Mysuru.
Congress and JDS joined hands to stop BJP from taking control of the Mysuru City Corporation in the mayoral polls last week. While JDS bagged the mayoral post, Congress settled for the deputy mayor’s post, enraging local strongman Siddaramaiah.
Siddaramaiah had decided to visit Mysuru for two days from Monday and had planned to discuss the issue with his partymen. But he dropped his plans as he was upset with KPCC president D K Shivakumar and Narasimharaja MLA Tanveer Sait over the recent developments in his own backyard, sources said. Though Siddaramaiah, who is in Delhi to attend the wedding of party general secretary Randeep Surjewala’s son, was reportedly “consoled” by Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal and others, the Ahinda leader has continued to maintain a stoic silence.
Siddaramaiah is also hurt after Congress MLA Zameer Ahmed was told not to call him the next chief minister, sources added. Siddaramaiah was also allegedly advised by party leaders not to announce candidates for the upcoming bypolls without the nod of the party’s election screening committee. With the demand growing within Congress for suspending Sait for allegedly taking a decision in the mayoral polls, JDS leader and MLA Sa Ra Mahesh welcomed the MLA to join the regional party.
He said JDS was ready to continue the tie-up with Congress and give away the mayor seat to them as per the previous agreement after the corporation polls in 2018. “But remarks by Siddaramaiah against our party made us rethink the alliance. That is why, we did not commit anything to either BJP or Congress.
Though we were offered the mayor’s post by Congress leaders on the eve of the polls, we did not agree and decided to contest independently as chances of us winning the mayoral polls were high as three Independents, including M V Ramprasad, had agreed to come to JDS,” he said.“When we were informed that our leaders G T Devegowda and Sandesh Nagaraj would be absent from the polls, we asked our corporators to take a decision and this was the outcome. We wanted to show the strength of JDS to Siddaramaiah ... who had questioned the existence of our party,” he said.