‘Parachute’ candidates behind Congress poll debacle

Bengaluru: Congress party's five-member fact-finding committee, headed by V. R. Sudarshan, on Tuesday categorically stated that leaders' penchant for dynasty as well as parachute dropping candidates during Assembly polls was the reason behind the debacle. On the disastrous outcome in the Lok Sabha polls, the committee attributed it to "outright rejection of alliance" between the JD(S) and Congress.

Although, the report did not name anyone directly, there were enough hints that incumbent KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao and KPCC working president Eshwar Khandre failed to revive the party apparatus during elections. The report's repeated assertions that the party failed to tackle social media and other wings of the party clearly points fingers at two heads of the party unit - Mr Rao and Mr Khandre.

While the report mostly speaks very highly of Mr Siddarmaiah's contributions as the CM, it subtly criticises most of the other party leaders without naming them.

After presenting the detailed report to Mr Gundurao here, committee convenor Basavaraj Rayareddy said that the Congress failed to encash in on then chief minister Siddaramaiah's popular schemes as well as his deft moves like mandatorily installing  of Basaveshwara photographs in government offices, renaming the university after Akka Mahadevi, social reformer and poetess.

"However, the Congress could not properly counter BJP's false propaganda on separate religion status. The party failed miserably. The party also failed in equipping the social media team as well as other wings during elections," he said, but refused to name anyone publicly.

Coming down heavily on growing preference for the dynastic politics and parachute dropping of leaders, Mr Reddy said, "I do not want to take any names. Some districts have become republic and complete control of these districts has gone into the hands of some powerful families," he said but did not mention any names. However, the report appears to be hinting at powerful leaders like Mallikarjuna Kharge, D. K. Shivakumar, Jarkiholis and K. H. Muniyappa.