Belagavi biff-baff spoils K C Venugopal's party

BENGALURU: A hopelessly divided Congress in Karnataka played out the familiar script of disagreements and groupism much to the discomfiture of party general secretary in-charge of the state, K C Venugopal, here on Saturday.   The infighting assumed such proportions that at one point, Mr Venugopal left the party office and moved to Kumara Krupa guest house to settle a dispute between Mrs Laxmi Hebbalkar and Mr Satish Jarkiholi over control on Primary Land Development (PLD) Bank in Belagavi.  

A glaring example of groupism, however, surfaced with former chief minister Siddaramaiah reportedly using his clout to ensure that the state unit does not invite deputy chief minister Dr G Parameshwar for a meeting of senior leaders at the party office. Mr Siddaramaiah and Dr Parameshwar who were at logger heads in the previous government and ran vilification campaigns against each other evidently continued the battle Saturday with the former making sure that the latter does not get an invite for this crucial meeting.

While Dr Parameshwar’s office confirmed that he was not invited and therefore left for Tumakuru on a private visit, the deputy chief minister returned to the party office later on to attempt a rapprochement between Mrs Hebbalkar and Mr Jarkiholi.