Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Mar 13:  In the preliminary meeting of city corporators convened at the district Congress office here on Wednesday 12 for finalizing the party’s candidates for the elections to the posts of city mayor and deputy mayors, heated verbal exchanges were witnessed between factions loyal to union minister, Veerappa Moily, and former union minister, Janardhan Poojary. At one stage the situation threatened to turn physical, as it looked as if corporators, Bhaskar Moily and Ashok D K were about to assault senior Congressman, Vijayakumar Shetty.  The election is slated to be held later today.

Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister, Ramanath Rai, had addressed the meeting in the beginning. When Vijayakumar Shetty rose to speak after Rai, city corporators, Bhaskar Moily and Ashok D K, rushed to near the dais and spilt their seething anger against Shetty. Both of them accused Shetty of working against the government by leading an agitation against the execution of Yettihole project. Charging Vijayakumar Shetty of having been a party to an incident of placing a garland of footwear on Veerappa Moily in the guise of anti-Yettinahole project, they demanded resignation of Shetty from his position as block Congress president, and asked him to desist from addressing the gathering.

Vijayakumar Shetty took up their challenge in all seriousness, and menacingly moved forward to confront the duo. But the angry members from warring groups were stopped by other corporators from meeting each other.  The meeting, instead of achieving the prime purpose of selecting candidates for mayoral election, turned a battle ground for factions within the party.

Shetty later clarified that he or his associate agitators against Yettinahole project had never instigated anyone to place garland of footwear on Moily, and that the people of the district, for the first time ever, had voluntarily observed total bandh for the said cause. Youth Congress president, Mithun Rai, objected to this explanation, and argued that those who had taken the lead in this agitation must be aware of what were the agitators doing.

Two more corporators supporting Moily then came forward and insisted that Vijayakumar Shetty should not be allowed to speak. Corporator, Purushottam Chitrapu, requested the people not to insult the former legislator, and allow him to speak.  Angered by these developments, Ramanath Rai shouted that he would walk out of the meeting if the members were not interested in choosing candidate for mayoral election. At this, the members calmed down, and Rai, who also  regained his composure, tendered apology on behalf of everyone.