TOI
Bangalore, Apr 22: Dissidence in JD(S) took a violent turn on Monday. Supporters of aspiring candidates who were denied a party ticket locked up party’s state unit president Merajuddin N Patel and stoned his house in Bangalore. Ticket aspirants are irked by the fact that Congress migrants have been preferred to them.
The JD(S) announced a list of 64 candidates for the first phase of elections, but withheld the announcement of candidates for the remaining 25 constituencies. As soon as the list was announced, aspirants who were denied tickets swarmed around the party office and the homes of Patel and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda.
Party functionary T Veeresh Kumar, an aspirant from Mahalakshmipuram, Marimuthu from Pulikeshinagar, Ravi Prakash from K R Puram and M V Venkatesh Murthy from Rajarajeshwarinagar have rebelled against the party leadership for being denied tickets. The police had to rush to Patel’s house to control the crowd. A television set and some articles were damaged in the stone-throwing.
Shouting slogans against Gowda, Marimuthu said: “I will see how he (JD(S) nominee R Srinivasamurthy) will win in Pulikeshinagar.’’ She was upset because Gowda prioritized a Congress migrant over her. The same was the case with Ravi Prakash, who had lost from Varthur constituency in 2004. He was unhappy as the party had neglected him and favoured Congress rebel L Muniswamy. Muslims from Mysore were particularly unhappy as the party has denied representation to a Muslim in the Muslim-dominated Narasimharaja constituency, but given ticket to film personality Sandesh Nagaraj. Leaders were holding meetings to pacify rebels and persuade them to work for party nominees.
Tough times ahead:
The party will have a hard time finalizing the candidates for the remaining 25 constituencies. To cite an instance, there is no consensus between Gowda and JD(S) state working president C Narayanaswamy on the latter’s candidature. Narayanaswamy wants to contest from Byatarayanapura, but Gowda is said to be advising him against it.