The rift in the Congress over its alliance with JD(S) has led to divisions in the Mysuru unit with two former Mayors belonging calling for suspension of former Minister and Narasimharaja Assembly constituency MLA Tanveer Sait.
Former Mayors Arif Hussain and Ayub Khan addressed a press conference alongside Mysuru City Congress Committee president R. Murthy on Friday, accusing Mr. Sait of joining hands with former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy to “humiliate” former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Taking exception to the sloganeering against Mr. Siddaramaiah in front of Mr. Sait’s residence on Friday, Mr. Hussain said Mr. Siddaramaiahwas the “voice of Muslims”. “It is because of Mr. Siddaramaiah that the minorities in the State have been able to hold their head high.”
Though Mr. Siddaramaiah had instructed Mr. Sait to secure the post of Mayor for Congress as per the understanding with JD(S), Mr. Sait had brokered a ‘deal’ with Mr. Kumaraswamy to not only hand over to the latter’s party the post of Mayor, but also have people shout slogans against Mr. Siddaramaiah, Mr. Hussain alleged.
The entire Congress was with Mr. Siddaramaiah, he said. Deputy Mayor Anwar Baig was also present at the press conference.
Mr. Ayub Khan said he and Mr. Hussain had opposed Mr. Sait’s decision taking in the Council to support the JD(S) candidate and walked out when the voting for the post of Mayor was taken up. “Before we entered the Council hall for the Mayoral polls, we were informed that we had to vote in favour of Congress candidate Shanthakumari. But, when Mr. Sait asked us to vote for JD (S), we suspected a conspiracy and walked out”, Mr. Khan said.
Both Mr. Khan and Mr. Hussain reported the matter to KPCC Working President R. Dhruvanarayan, who had been deputed to the polls as KPCC observer. “Even he was not aware that the Congress was supporting the candidate of the JD(S)”, he said and added that their efforts to contact Mr. Siddaramaiah over the phone went in vain.
The instructions of the party should come from either the KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah or the KPCC observer. “When none of them had taken such a decision, we did not cast our vote. The rest of the Congress corporators did as per the directions given by Mr. Sait as most of them are first-time corporators and Mr. Sait is a senior leader of the party in Mysuru, who is not only a former Minister, but also a five-time MLA”, Mr. Khan said.
