Factionalism In Karnataka Congress: Five Legislators Threaten To Resign Amid Dispute Over Kolar Lok Sabha Candidate Selection

The Congress party in Karnataka is embroiled in a dispute over the selection of the candidate for the Kolar constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The issue arose after K H Muniyappa, a minister in the state government and a former MP from Kolar, proposed his son-in-law, Chikka Peddanna, as the candidate.

This proposal has led to dissatisfaction among five party members, including three MLAs and two MLCs, who have threatened to resign in protest.

The contention is primarily due to the fact that Pedanna getting the ticket would ensure representation for communities classified as Scheduled Castes (SC)-Left in Karnataka as opposed to the SC-Right, which the legislators are pushing for. 

The Congress party, which had difficulties in fielding candidates, is now dealing with the challenge of managing multiple aspirants for the same seat.

The MLAs who have threatened to resign are G Manjunath (Kolar Assembly constituency), K Y Nanjegowda (Malur constituency) and M C Sudhakar (Chintamani constituency) and the MLCs are Anil Kumar and Naseer Ahmed.

Sudhakar is the Karnataka's higher education minister and Ahmed is the political secretary to chief minister Siddaramaiah.

While the MLCs met the Legislative Council chairman and showed their resignation letters to journalists, the MLAs were planning to meet the Assembly Speaker. 

"I have all respect for the party high command, but here we want others to get representation. That is the only issue. Since some people are trying to put pressure on the high command to get the seat, we thought there is no point continuing. We would rather sit at home than continue," Sudhakar said, NDTV reported.

Later, all the legislators decided to hold off on their resignations after being asked to do so by CM Siddaramaiah and Congress state chief and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar.

Urban Development Minister BS Suresha rushed to meet the legislators to convince them not to resign.

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