CHIKKAMAGALURU: Congress workers reportedly exchanged blows at the District Congress Committee (DCC) office in Chikkamagaluru on Saturday over the issue of giving a ticket to HD Thammaiah, who recently quit BJP and joined the Grand Old Party.
District Congress Graduates and Teachers’ unit president GB Pavan was reportedly manhandled at a meeting convened by Block Congress president HP Manje Gowda to resolve the issue related to the allocation of party tickets for the Chikkamagaluru Assembly constituency.
Ticket aspirants DL Vijayakumar, AN Mahesh, Mahadimane Sathish, Harish and CN Akmal were on the dais. Initiating the debate, Manje Gowda said party workers should work unitedly for the success of the candidate selected by the high command. Intervening at this juncture, supporters of Pavan demanded that the ticket for the Chikkamagaluru seat be given to a loyal Congress leader and not to an “outsider”.
This led to a heated argument between supporters of Pavan and Manje Gowda. Tension prevailed when Pavan was allegedly manhandled by the supporters of Manje Gowda. The “move” to give tickets to Thammaiah led to dissatisfaction among many workers and a meeting was convened to resolve this issue. Without naming Thammaiah, party workers said only a loyal Congress candidate could take on BJP’s CT Ravi and not an “outsider” who joined the party recently.
Moreover, voters desired a change this time and hence, the party should field a loyal and formidable candidate. “We will remain neutral during campaigning if our appeal is ignored,” they added. The meeting witnessed noisy scenes for some time and the enraged party workers walked out.
DCC chief: Will work unitedly
DCC president KP Anshumanth told TNSE that the meeting witnessed only heated arguments between party workers. But, it has been blown out of proportion in social media. “It is common in all political parties. We leave the issue of ticket allocation to the high command. We will work unitedly for the success of the candidate selected by the high command,” he said.
Pavan said, “We are in favour of a sincere, loyal and original Congress candidate. A migrant ticket aspirant has been busy appeasing one section of people without consulting party workers or leaders. The wave is against BJP’s Ravi. We, therefore, support a loyal and original Congress candidate.”