The ongoing feud between KPCC president G. Parameshwar and Lingayat strongman and KPCC treasurer Shamanur Shivashankarappa could split the state unit down the middle with stalwarts like senior Congress leader K.C. Kondaiah, who is lobbying hard to make Mr Shivashankarappa president of the KPCC, launching a tirade on Monday against Dr Parameshwar for indulging in “politics of vengeance”.
The provocation? In a letter written to Mr Shivashankarappa on September 7, Dr Parameshwar asks the Davangere MLA to relinquish his post if he is unable to devote enough time to party work. He indicated in the letter that a KPCC office bearers’ meeting was convened on August 27 at 11 am at the KPCC office in Bengaluru, which he failed to attend. “As it is an election year, your absence is of a serious nature”.
A copy of this letter was forwarded to Madhusudhan Mistry, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Mr Kondaiah, who released the letter to the press, said. “Is this the way to treat a veteran leader who worked for 50 years to strengthen the party base in the state? It is not only an insult to Shamanur Shivashankarappa, but to the entire Congress party”, Mr Kondaiah remarked.
He accused Dr Parameshwar of pushing other Congressmen to write complaints against leaders who back Shamanur for the KPCC chief’s post, thereby creating factions in the party. “Dr Parameshwar instigated a Bellary DCC president to write a complaint against me to the KPCC and AICC, alleging that I indulged in anti-party activity. How can I go against the party when I sacrificed my seat for AICC chief Sonia Gandhi so that she could contest from the Bellary Lok Sabha seat in the 1999 elections? I did this in the larger interests of the party. That election helped Congress come to power in Karnataka in 1999”, he pointed out.