Tumkur Congress chief seeks expulsion of several party leaders for LS poll defeat

Tumkur District Congress president R Ramakrishna on Saturday wrote to general secretary KC Venugopal blaming party leaders for the defeat of Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition candidate HD Deve Gowda in the Lok Sabha constituency.

He has also recommended expulsion of leaders like former MLA KN Rajanna, and state Youth Congress vice president Rajendra from the party.

"The person who is responsible for all this is KN Rajanna, Youth Congress president R Rajendra, Gram Panchayat member J J Rahana, Chudappa Shantla Rajanna, Manjula Narayana Reddy, Taluk panchayat president, vice-president, and members," Ramakrishna wrote in his letter.

As a part of the seat-sharing deal between Congress and JD (S), Tumkur Lok Sabha seat was contested by JD(S) leader and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. However, he lost to BJP's GS Basavraj.

In his report to Venugopal, the district Congress president termed the lack of unity between JD (S) and Congress workers as one of the reasons for the loss.

"Although the coalition party announced Deve Gowda as the coalition candidate, former MP Muddahanumegowda, KN Rajanna filed nomination earlier, which created confusion. After much drama, they withdrew their nomination but their followers never supported the coalition candidate," Ramakrishna said in his report.

He further alleged that Muddahanumegowda campaigned at only two places and did not campaign in the rest of the places, which helped the BJP.

"Sahakar Mahamandala president N Ganganna and others distributed money in favour of the BJP. The money which was given by the Congress was also distributed to favour the BJP," Ramakrishna said in his report.

"I request the party high command to take strict stringent action against the above-mentioned people," he urged.

BJP won 25 of 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state while the Congress-JD(S) coalition could win only two seats.