Prominent Lingayat leaders in Congress have commenced the spadework to list a slew of complaints and demand the ouster of KPCC chief Dr G. Parameshwar, a move which could well heighten the discord between members of the numerically significant community and the leader.
The complaints are likely to include the party’s debacle in the recent elections to the Legislative Council from the graduates and teachers’ constituencies, the leader’s style of functioning, and his failure to bring back various sects of Scheduled Castes into the party fold.
“By far, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge is the tallest leader of the community. When such a leader led the party in the 2008 assembly elections, the party reached the 80-seat mark.
Do you think the party can better its tally under Dr Parameshwar’s leadership? Compared to Mr Kharge, Dr Parameshwar is a lightweight. So, the party can never think of coming to power under his leadership,” said a senior Lingayat leader.
Besides, he did not conduct himself as a leader. “He has convened three office bearers’ meetings so far. Of the 110 members, only 30 were invited.
Others were not invited because he thought the others were against him,” sources in the state unit of Congress told Deccan Chronicle.
The sources pointed out that the most significant blunder of Dr Parameshwar was lack of planning leading to the defeat of Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi in elections to the Legislative Council.
“Mr Saradagi selected 30 MLAs to vote for him. However, at the eleventh hour, it seems Dr Parameshwar shifted 12 MLAs to vote for Ms Motamma.
” Meanwhile, the Lingayat leaders who were scheduled to leave for New Delhi on Sunday have postponed their trip by four days.
“The party’s central leaders have convened a meeting on August 22. We will meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi after this meeting and seek Dr Parameshwar’s replacement,” said one of the senior leaders from the rebel group.