Ashoka claims that Ravindra’s departure indicates that Congress is selling its LS tickets

The KPCC General Secretary HN Ravindra’s resignation from the Congress primary membership, according to Assembly Opposition Leader R Ashoka on Wednesday, is evidence that the governing party is selling tickets for the Lok Sabha elections via an auction. He went on to say that this would mean disaster for the Grand Old Party in the upcoming elections.

Alleging that the party had selected a businessman, Star Chandru, to fight the election from Mandya, betraying the interests of party leaders and workers, Ravindra resigned from both the KPCC general secretary position and party membership. He said that although the party’s senior leadership is choosing moneybags to face the elections, ministers are not interested in running for office. Ravindra pointed out that the chosen businessman is not even a party main member.

He held local authorities responsible for the unilateral choice of the candidate, accusing Mandya district in-charge minister N Chaluvarayaswamy and other politicians of doing so without consulting them.

Politicians in Congress shouldn’t use banknotes to gauge how much the public loves and respects them. These leaders will operate casinos in Mandya’s lakes in a few days, just as they do in Goa, he claimed.

“KPCC general secretary DK Shivakumar appointed me because he saw potential in my work. However, the atmosphere in Congress is now tainted. I have been sincere and hardworking in my job. I had hoped to be awarded a ticket to run in the last Assembly election from the Melukote Assembly seat, but the Raitha Sangha had the ticket instead of me. Party leaders did not think to ask me before making the decision, not even out of politeness. Party officials and local leaders are being used as puppets by party leaders, he said.

He said that by allowing ST Somashekar to rejoin the party, the leadership of the party is also defrauding the workers.