Bangalore, Dec 30 (IANS) The Congress in poll-bound Karnataka is now facing a problem of ‘migrants’ versus ‘originals’, with migrants being those who left other outfits to join the party.
The issue took an ugly turn recently with two senior leaders virtually coming to blows at a meeting of the party youth wing in Mysore, 130 km from Bangalore.
It all started when M. Mahadev, the ‘original’ Congress leader from the area, talked of the importance being given to ‘migrants’ from other parties.
Supporters of former Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader Siddaramaiah who joined the Congress last year tried to shout him down. Mahadev’s supporters tried to outshout Siddaramiah’s backers, resulting in a chaotic situation at the meet.
Siddaramaiah, who was on the dais, rushed towards Mahadev, who later claimed that he would have been assaulted if his supporters had not come to his help.
Mahadev has sent a CD of the scene to Congress leaders in Delhi and told them that it would be difficult for him and his supporters to work with Siddaramaiah.
The incident has taken a casteist turn, placing the state party leadership in a fix.
Siddaramaiah, a former deputy chief minister of Karnataka, is an influential backward class leader while Mahadev belongs to the politically powerful Lingayat community.
There have been demonstrations on caste-lines in Mysore and nearby areas for and against the two leaders.
Siddaramaiah was hoping to get a prominent position within the state party set-up but the Mysore incident has now cast a shadow over him.
The state party leadership is claiming that the incident is being blown out of proportion and that the two leaders have patched up their differences.
The Mysore incident and the Gujarat experience where a large number of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebels who were given Congress tickets for the recent assembly polls there lost has made the state and central Congress leaders wary of admitting leaders from other parties, particularly the JD-S.
At least half a dozen former members of the Karnataka assembly led by former JD-S senior leader M.P. Prakash are willing to join the Congress provided there is an assurance of tickets to contest the assembly polls expected in April/May.
The state Congress, which was keen to open the doors to JD-S rebels, however, has changed its tune after the Gujarat debacle and the Mysore incident.
It now says that only those with bright prospects of victory in the polls will be admitted to the party.