A political slugfest over alleged support extended by Mandya Congress leaders to BJP-backed Independent candidate Sumalatha continued on Friday, with the Legal Cell and Human Rights Department of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) demanding expulsion of five leaders for alleged violation of the party discipline.
In a letter to KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, department’s chairman C.M. Dhananjay sought the party leadership to expel former MLAs N. Cheluvarayaswamy, P.M. Narendra Swamy, Ramesh Bandisidde Gowda, and K.B. Chandrashekar, and G. Ravi, Congress candidate who got defeated in Mandya in the previous election, from the party for “deliberately disobeying” the party discipline, party leadership, and coalition dharma . They “secretly” opposed Janata Dal (Secular) candidate for Mandya seat K. Nikhil, whom the Congress had supported, and backed Ms. Sumalatha, the letter claimed.
The party’s unwillingness to initiate stringent action against its Mandya leaders has left a section of Congress and JD(S) leaders unhappy.
Some of these Congress leaders having attended a “dinner meeting” with Ms. Sumalatha, on April 30, would set a bad precedent, Mr. Dhananjay observed. The party’s refusal to take action against these leaders would encourage other leaders to indulge in similar indiscipline in future, he said. Sources said the JD(S) would exert pressure through the Congress central leadership for action against these Mandya leaders.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rao summoned Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy to the party office on Friday and sought an explanation on the “dinner meeting”, a video of which was leaked to the media. Mr. Rao said there was no need to attach too much significance to the dinner meeting. “The election results would provide answers to all doubts,” he said.
Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy told reporters that he and Mr. Narendra Swamy had only “maintained distance” from the JD(S) candidate during the election campaign. He insisted that they had not supported Ms. Sumalatha.
Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy claimed that he and other party leaders had not indulged in any anti-party activities. “How does some of us meeting her at a dinner event become anti-party activity?” He also sought to know if Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy would strengthen the Congress in Mandya.
The former Minister said he and other Congress leaders in Mandya should not be held responsible if Mr. Nikhil was defeated. Both the Congress and the JD(S) should treat it as the people’s mandate, he said.
Minister for Food and Civil Supplies B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan defended Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy, saying Congress leaders had supported the JD(S) during the bypoll in Mandya last year. He dismissed allegations against Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy as “baseless”.
