Mangaluru, Dec 7: The infighting and dissidence triggered among Congress leaders and activist in coastal Karnataka following the annulment of the list of MLC candidates reached to their peak on Monday when two of the party leaders formally filed nomination as independent candidates.
Within an hour after Congress candidate Pratapchandra Shetty, who is also a sitting MLC, filed his nomination papers at Deputy Commissioner AB Ibrahim’s office in Mangaluru, former Udupi MP Jayaprakash Hegde and another Congress leader from Udupi Bhujanga Shetty also filed nomination papers.
While Pratapchandra Shetty was accompanied senior Congress leaders of Coastal Karnataka including B Ramanath Rai, Abhaychandra Jain, Vinay Kumar Sorake, Pramod Madhwaraj, Mohiuddin Bava and Ivan D'Souza, the other two candidates were accompanied supporters in the party.
Responding to the queries of media persons Pratapchandra Shetty, said that even though he had initially circulated a letter with a message that he would not contest the poll this time, the party workers and leaders convinced him to contest again.
On the other hand Both Mr Hegde and Bhujanga Shetty declined to identify themselves as Congress rebels and made it clear that they were not against the party but only were against party’s candidate Pratapchandra Shetty, who according them is incompetent and inactive.
Speaking to media persons after filing nomination papers, said that he is still a Congress man and never thought of quitting the party. However, he said that he was hurt by the attitude of some of the party leaders.
“What was the necessity to give ticket to Mr. Shetty, when he had not applied for it? As many as 10 Congress leaders, including myself, from Udupi district had applied for the ticket. The party could have given it to any one of the 10 aspirants,” he said.
Mr. Hegde said that the party should have issued ticket to any leader who had worked for the party and would play an active role in the Legislative Council. Mr. Shetty had not worked for the party in the last three elections and also the recently concluded gram panchayat elections.
The senior party leaders had not even discussed the matter of giving ticket to Mr. Shetty with the party aspirants.
Asked if his filing the nomination papers would amount to anti-party activity, Mr. Hegde said: “Let us see what happens.”
Bhujanga Shetty said that the party’s decision to give ticket to Pratapchandra Shetty is unacceptable especially when the latter had himself stated that he was not interested in contesting for the seat.
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