‘Manjunatha Gowda’s return to Congress detrimental to party’s prospects’

He is said to be involved in the gold loan scam of Apex Bank. Earlier, Manjunatha Gowda had contested Lok Sabha polls as a BJP candidate.

In spite of strong opposition from the Shivamogga District Congress Committee, R.M. Manjunatha Gowda, president of the Karnataka State Cooperative Apex Bank has been re-inducted to the party.

Mr. Manjunatha Gowda joined the party with his supporters at the residence of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G. Parameshwara at Bengaluru on Wednesday. Minister for Energy D.K. Shivakumar and Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar, who were reportedly instrumental to his (Mr. Manjunatha Gowda’s) re-entry into the party were present at the time of his joining.

In the initial stages of his political career, Mr. Manjunatha Gowda, a follower of the former Chief Minister late J.H. Patel, was associated with the Janata Dal. When the Congress came to power in the State in 1999, Mr. Manjunatha Gowda joined it. When B.S. Yeddyurappa assumed charge as Chief Minister in 2008, Mr. Manjunatha Gowda shifted his loyalty to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Again, when Mr. Yeddyurappa quit the BJP to join the then Karnataka Janata Paksha, Mr. Manjunatha Gowda followed the former. He contested the previous Assembly elections from Tirthahalli segment as a KJP candidate and lost it by a thin margin to Kimmane Ratnakar of the Congress.

Mr. Manjunatha Gowda, who was also the president of the Shivamogga District Central Cooperative Bank was arrested by District Crime Intelligence Bureau personnel in August 2014 for his alleged role in the scam related to the issuance of gold loan at the Gandhi Bazaar branch.

It was said that the bank suffered a loss of Rs. 62 crore owing to alleged irregularities. The State government had ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department into the allegations of irregularities.

In the political developments that followed later, Mr. Manjunatha Gowda established a close acquaintance with Mr. Shivakumar and Mr. Ratnakar. Mr. Manjunatha Gowda had convened a meeting of his supporters at Tirthahalli during March and had hinted that he would soon return to the Congress.

According to the district Congress, when Dr. Parameshwara sought the opinion of local leaders on the issue, the functionaries of the District Congress Committee, including its president R. Prasanna Kumar, had strongly opposed the return of Mr. Manjunatha Gowda. The local leaders had said that re-induction of a tainted leader, who was known for shifting loyalty frequently, would be detrimental to the party’s image.

Even Dr. Parameshwara was not in favour of the move.

As the gram panchayat polls were fast approaching, it is said that Mr. Shivakumar and Mr. Ratnakar told the KPCC that the re-induction of Mr. Manjunatha Gowda, who had a strong support base with cooperative societies and women self help groups, would be beneficial to the party.

A top Congress leader, on the condition of anonymity, told The Hindu that as the morale of the Congress was low in the district, following the humiliating defeat it suffered in the Lok Sabha election in Shivamogga onstituency, Dr. Parameshwara gave green signal for the return of Mr. Manjunatha Gowda to the Congress, believing that it would help the party perform well in the gram panchayat elections.