K'taka MLA Roshan Baig calls leaders 'buffoon' , 'flop show'; party serves him showcause

Infighting in Congress party's Karnataka unit reared its ugly head publically with one leader, Roshan Baig, levelling a series of strong allegations against the party leadership.

The party has served a showcause notice seeking an explanation from him within a week. To which, the Congress MLA said he will not even bother reading the notice as it has "clearly been sent on the orders of the same people whose incompetencies were highlighted" by him.

Baig had earlier said Congress general secretary KC Venugopal is "a buffon", the party's state unit president Dinesh Gundu Rao "a flop show" and blamed Congress Legislature Party Leader (CLP) Siddaramaiah for the "collapse" of the Congress-JD(U) alliance in the state.

Speaking to ANI earlier today, Baig also reiterated he is upset with the fact that no seats were given to Christians and only one seat to Muslims in Karnataka.

"No seats were given to Christians and only one seat was given to Muslims in Karnataka, they were ignored. I'm upset with this, we have been used," he said.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary Venkatrao Y Ghorpade on sent a showcause notice to Baig.

"I've received the showcause notice sent to me by the KPCC. I'm not even going to bother to read it because it's clearly sent by the orders of the same people whose incompetencies were highlighted by me," Baig said.

Baig, who is apparently at loggerheads with the Congress party after not getting a ticket to contest the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, slammed Gundurao and Siddaramaiah asserting that "these two leaders should be held responsible if Congress doesn't perform well in the general elections."

A few hours later, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara slammed Baig for his claims and said that it is his personal opinion and not the party's opinion or assessment.

A miffed Baig, also called his party leader KC Venugopal a "buffoon" and blamed Siddaramaiah for the "collapse" of the alliance in the state.

"KC Venugopal is a buffoon. I feel sorry for my leader Rahul Gandhi ji. Buffoons like Venugopal, the arrogant attitude of Siddaramaiah and the flop show of Gundu Rao...The result is this," he told the media persons.

When he was asked whether Congress should have given more thought before assigning minister portfolios, Baig said, "Portfolios were sold. How can I blame Kumaraswamy for it? He wasn't allowed to function. From day one Siddaramaiah said he is going to be the chief minister. You have gone to their doorstep to form the government."

Responding to this, Gundu Rao said: "It is unbecoming of a politician of his stature to be speaking like this, it ranks of pure political opportunism. We will take the required action when the time is right."

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rizwan Arshad called Baig an "opportunist" and asked him to resign from the party.

"He is an opportunist. If he has guts let him resign and contest from theBJP. If Congress is such a bad party which gave him power for the last 10 years and made him MLA for the last four terms let him resign and contest from BJP. Let's see what happens in Shivajinagara," he said.

Gundurao added, "The words he's using shows his own standard, his background. In public life, nobody uses such words for anyone. He knows what he did with me in the last and recent elections. He has no moral right to give advice to the party."

Amidst the friction in the coalition in Karnataka, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy cancelled his visit to New Delhi to meet Election Commission, along with the 21 opposition parties, over the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

Kumaraswamy had cancelled his visit after expressing concern over the vulnerability of EVMs on Monday.

Karnataka has 28 parliamentary constituencies. Polling for the seven-phased Lok Sabha elections concluded on May 19. The much-awaited results of the general elections will be announced on May 23.