Congress suspends one of Karnataka’s richest politicians ahead of Karnataka polls

New Delhi, Jan 07: The Congress has suspended its leader Yousuf alias KGF Babu for saying that the party will not win more than 80 seats in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023.

The elections are scheduled to be held in April-May this year.

The disciplinary committee of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee issued his suspension order for speaking against the party. Following this KGF Babu entered the party office on Friday and created a ruckus while accusing former MLA Devraj and other leaders of trying to use rowdies to threaten him.

Babu is a ticket aspirant for the Chickpet assembly constituency in Bengaluru. He told the media that the party has been giving priority to caste and seniority and not winnability when it considers applications for the ticket. The party will not cross 80 seats and there is overconfidence among the leaders that the party will come to power.

He also said that some within the party are conspiring. The Congress will not cross 80 seats. We are being overconfident, he told the media.

Following his remarks, K Rahman Khan, chairman of the disciplinary committee of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee suspended him for his repeated anti-party remarks. Khan said that he had not given a satisfactory reply to previous notices.

KGF Baby had declared assets to the tune of Rs 1,700 in his affidavit to the Election Commission of India in the year 2021. He is one of the richest politicians in Karnataka.

All parties are preparing in full-swing to face the Karnataka assembly elections which are due to be held in April-May 2023. The ruling BJP has said that it would contest the elections alone and would not be in any alliance. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had sounded the BJP's poll bugle last month. He had said that for the BJP to become the largest party in the elections, it had to win big in the Old Mysuru Region. The BJP has been weak in this belt and this year is putting in as many resources as possible to win big in this region.

In the previous elections, the BJP ended up as the single largest party. However since it fell short of majority, the JD(S) and Congress formed the government in the state. Later on with some from Congress and JD(S) jumping ship, the government collapsed and the BJP formed the government in Karnataka.

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