Chickballapur Seat: Ramaiah Vs Moily Puts Congress on Edge Again After Kolar Heat

Bengaluru: An internal strife has erupted in Karnataka Congress over selection of the candidate for Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha seat where three aspirants are eyeeing for the ticket. 

Bagepalli Congress MLA Subba Reddy wrote a letter to Karnataka party president DK Shivakumar, mentioning that ticket should not be given to Indian Youth Congress general secretary Raksha Ramaiah. 

Instead, he suggested two names from the Chikkaballapur segment- former union minister and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily and former agriculture minister N H Shivashankar Reddy. 

Moily claimed support of 98 per cent of the Congress workers in Chikkaballapur and if given ticket, he will ‘100 per cent win the Lok Sabha election.’ 

 “The Congress holds six out of eight Assembly segments in Chikkaballapur. A few days ago, at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, MLAs again supported my candidature,” the 84-year-old leader said.

Moily represented Chikkaballapur twice - 2009 and 2014 - before tasting defeat against BJP’s BN Bachegowda in 2019. "I lost the third time due to the wrong alliance our party had with the JD(S)," he said.

The Congress is yet to announce name of candidate for the Chikkaballapur segment, and Kolar, which is another heated seat where the Congress faced internal strife.  

Congress Faces Heat For Kolar Candidate

The Congress' Central Election Committee on Wednesday had to withheld ticket of KH Muniyappa's son-in-law from Kolar seat after 5 disgruntled MLAs threatened of quitting party over ticket distribution. 

The resignation threat by Congress MLAs came after the allocation of Lok Sabha polls ticket for the Kolar constituency to a relative of Food and Civil Supplies Minister, KH Muniyappa, Chikkapeddanna. 

Reacting to the ticket distribution, Karnataka Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar, one among the disgruntled MLAs, said they can't accept party's decision of fielding Muniyappa from Kolar segment. 

“We want other people in the party to get a chance. We will talk to the CM later today. When he (KH Muniyappa) was here, we were affected by his style of functioning and faced hardship. There is a general feeling in the constituency that SC community is not being represented. We want a candidate from other than this family,” Sudhakar said.