At Congress candidate selection meet, heated arguments as decision is put off

The candidate selection process for the Congress was not a smooth affair. Immense differences were reported during the Central Election Committee meeting and senior leaders ended up arguing with each other as a result of which the announcement of the Congress list for the Karnataka election was held up.

The problem began when some senior leaders objected to Siddaramaiah contesting from both Chamundeshwari and Badami. Senior leaders, Mallikarjuna Kharge and Veerappa Moily said that it would convey a wrong message to the voter.

Further Kharge and Moily also objected to giving tickets to new entrants Anand Singh, Nagendra and Ashok Khenny. The leaders felt that this would help the opposition launch an attack on the Congress. While Singh and Nagendra are accused in the illegal mining case, Kheny is under the scanner for the controversial Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Project.

The arguments at one point of time were so heated that around 1 pm, Kharge stormed out of the meeting. The meeting had to then be postponed to 5 pm.

When the leaders met again at 5 pm, arguments continued over whether the 7 JD(S) rebel MLAs who recently joined the Congress must be given tickets. The Congress would meet again today. The committee has urged the leaders to set aside their differences and come for the meeting.