Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Sep 16: It is learnt that a section within the district Congress party led by some Muslim leaders has been insisting that Dakshina Kannada district Congress president and MLC, Harish Kumar, should be replaced. However, veteran leaders are in favour of continuing Kumar in that position at least till the next assembly election.

Harish Kumar had assumed charge as the district Congress president during June 2017, after which he has led the party well. He has ended factionalism within the party and has time and again enforced discipline and adhered to instructions of the party leadership.

Harish Kumar

It is said that leaders like Ramanath Rai, Abhayachandra jain, U T Khader, Ivan D'Souza, J R Lobo, Shakuntala Shetty, Mohiuddin Bava and youth Congress leader, Mithun Rai, are in favour of his continuance in that post.

However, a faction predominantly comprising Muslim leaders has been pooling together an opinion for Kumar's replacement. A few of the leaders of this faction are indirectly associated with the SDPI, it is said. They have identified a leader from Puttur for the post of the district president, it is learnt. During the agitations against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), some of these leaders had joined hands with the SDPI, sources said.

It is said that there is dissatisfaction within the party about a few leaders who enter the election under the Congress symbol but otherwise mostly get associated with the SDPI. These leaders, it is said, want to have a leader who can openly fight against the concept of Hindutwa. But the party leaders who have sensed that the people in general have soft corner for Hindutva are dithering from fighting against this concept at least in coastal districts of Karnataka for the time being.