MYSURU: Assembly Opposition Leader R Ashoka on Wednesday said KPCC General Secretary HN Ravindra resigning from the primary membership of Congress proves that the ruling party is auctioning tickets for the Lok Sabha elections. This will spell doom for the Grand Old Party in the general elections, he added.
Ravindra resigned from the party membership and the KPCC general secretary’s post, alleging that the party has picked a businessman, Star Chandru, to contest the election from Mandya, betraying the interests of party workers and leaders. Ministers are not interested in contesting the election, while the party top leadership is picking money bags to face the polls, he alleged. The businessman, who has been picked, is not even a primary member of the party, Ravindra criticised.
He blamed Mandya district in-charge minister N Chaluvarayaswamy and other leaders for taking a unilateral decision in picking the candidate, without discussing it with local leaders.
“Congress leaders should not measure the love and respect of voters by currency notes. In a few days, these leaders will run casinos in the lakes of Mandya similar to Goa,” he charged.
“KPCC president DK Shivakumar believed in my work and made me KPCC general secretary. But the environment within Congress is now polluted. I have worked with honesty and diligence. I was hoping to get a ticket to contest the previous Assembly election from the Melukote Assembly constituency, but I missed out as the ticket was given to the Raitha Sangha. Even for courtesy’s sake, party leaders did not consider asking me while taking the decision. Party leaders are using party workers and local leaders like puppets,” he charged.
The party leadership is also cheating the workers by bringing ST Somashekar back into the party, he alleged.