MYSURU: After Congress announced its second list on Thursday, voices of dissent have grown louder as many turncoats and new faces have been picked. Even as the rank and file of the party is upset, those helming the Central Election Committee and screening committee have said the party has gone by the survey report done by a private agency.
Justifying their action, Congress leaders disclosed that the survey has given 140 seats out of 224. Though it is common for party leaders to use internal surveys as the only criterion to select candidates, it could prove costly for the party, going by the sentiments of the cadre. Some workers alleged that the survey is a means to check Siddaramaiah from walking away with a lion’s share of seats.
Questioning the credibility of the report, aspirants said the party, instead, should have gone by the pulse of the people on ground zero. Equal weightage should have been given to the opinions provided by local party workers, they added.
The strongest resistance has come from Kolar, where a survey suggested that Sidaramaiah could lose. But local leaders said Siddaramaiah could win by over 30,000 votes.
A Congress MLA and two other candidates, requesting anonymity, said the party should go by the ground report and not by the survey report, as the mood of the people and trends keep changing in the run-up to the polls.
If the internal survey report is the benchmark, how did novices figure in the second list in Chitradurga, Mandya, Gokak, Kadur and KR Pet, they asked. Now, many rebels may contest as independents, while others could knock on JDS doors, they said. When KPCC president DK Shivakumar and a screening committee member pointed out that the survey has not favoured the turncoat, who joined the party last week, why was he given the ticket in KR Pet, they asked.
Party workers said they are also unhappy with the Mandya candidate, who had switched off his cell phone two days before the D-day giving an edge to the JDS candidate.
The party insiders said some of the candidates chosen for a few constituencies in Bengaluru have no chance of winning the polls. Instead of ignoring serious aspirants, the Central Election Committee should have gone with stronger contenders to fight in BJP strongholds in the capital, they pointed out.