Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 16: Several senior Congress leaders from the state gave vent to their unhappiness at the way they are being overlooked, by staying away from the meeting convened by state Congress affairs in-charge K C Venugopal, on Tuesday October 15.

It may be recalled that these veteran party leaders were opposed to the selection of Siddaramaiah as the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. They are angry that their opposition was neglected. They showed their anger by choosing not to participate in the meeting called by Venugopal to discuss about preparations and beefing up party's organizational set up in the face of bypoll scheduled on December 5 for 15 assembly constituencies.

K C Venugopal

Senior party leaders K H Muniyappa, former minister H K Patil, former deputy chief minister, Dr G Parameshwar and B K Hariprasad were the prominent leaders who did not attend the meeting.

These leaders are infuriated at the unilateral decisions of Siddaramaiah that are imposed on them. They have also been maintaining equidistance from Venugopal, as they feel that he is working in favour of Siddaramaiah. It is said that these leaders feel humiliated as their opinions were sidelined and the bypoll is fought under the leadership of Siddaramaiah.

The high command has given the responsibility of ensuring that the party wins most number of seats in the upcoming bypoll, to Siddaramaiah. At the Tuesday meeting, Venugopal is reported to have asked Siddaramaiah to see that Congress wins most among the 15 seats which will go to polls. He also reportedly advised him to take senior leaders into confidence and strengthen the party's organizational structure.

At the said meeting, Venugopal collected opinions from observers of the 15 constituencies about choice of candidates. The party want to win all the 15 seats if possible. On 'Tuesday, discussions were individually held with the observers of assembly constituencies falling within the city limits like Shivajinagar, Hoskote, K R Pura, Mahalaxmi Layout, Yashwantpur, and Chikkaballapur. They also collected opinions about the possible responses in these constituencies if BJP rebels are given party tickets.

K C Venugopal criticized the state government for throwing all the rules and regulations to winds and neglecting election model code of conduct although bypoll date has already been declared.