Cong. workers slam leaders for delay in candidate selection

Some workers of the Congress blamed the top leaders for the delay in choosing the candidate for Karkala Assembly Constituency for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Daniel Ranger, Congress party worker, said that the party high command should clear the confusion over the candidate for the Karkala Assembly seat.

The party workers had urged the high command to select the Congress leader, Muniyal Uday Shetty, as the party candidate as he had been strengthening the party from the grassroots level for the last two years, he said.

He said that Harsha Moily, son of the former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily, had stated that he would not contest from the seat. Gopal Bhandary, Congress leader and former MLA, too did not appear to have any inclination to contest from there.

After Mr. Harsha Moily left the fray, the leaders in charge of the party in Udupi district, G.A. Bawa and Bharat Mundodi, were nowhere to be seen.

“We want to fight the elections under the guidance of Mr. Veerappa Moily and Mr. Bhandary with Mr. Shetty as the candidate,” he said.

The Congress had not only lost the Karkala seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Assembly elections in 2013 but had also failed to win a single Zilla Panchayat seat in Karkala constituency in the subsequent Zilla Panchayat elections.

It had also lost all the 19 seats of the Karkala Taluk Panchayat to the BJP. As many as 26 gram panchayats in the constituency too were under BJP-supported candidates.

The Karkala Block Congress Committee had been lethargic in dealing with the situation, he said.

“All this make it necessary for the high command to announce the candidate in advance so that the party can be prepared and fare well in the Assembly elections,” he said.

The party workers had already sent an email in this regard to AICC president Rahul Gandhi and KPCC president G. Parameshwara, he said.

Asked if the workers were willing to campaign if the party declared Mr. Bhandary as the candidate, Mr. Ranger said that the workers would have to do it, but they all wanted Mr. Shetty as the candidate.

Taranath Kotian, Sheikh Shabbir, Valerian Pais, Ranjit C.T., Congress workers, were present.