Congress rebel: Leaders are selling tickets
Finally, he asked for Devanahalli and he was disappointed to see the party ignoring his request.
Bengaluru: The accusations of ‘sale’ of assembly poll tickets has come back to haunt the Congress party.
Nearly a week after the Congress came out with its full list of candidates for the assembly elections, a SC leader and a close follower of veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy has levelled a serious charge that Congress tickets were sold. Interestingly, he made this charge only after quitting the party and joining the BJP on Friday.
Mr Narayanaswamy levelled the charge against KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar and Chikkaballapura MP. M. Veerappa Moily. Mr Narayanaswamy was upset as the Congress party had denied him a ticket. He had originally asked for Nelamangala but when the party denied him the seat, he wanted to contest from C.V. Raman Nagar where the party chose Bengaluru mayor Sampath Raj.
Finally, he asked for Devanahalli and he was disappointed to see the party ignoring his request.
"I came to know that Dr Parameshwar and Mr Moily sold tickets. I do not know the real price, but it must be not less than Rs five crore. Dr Parameshwar has a team to do this. You cannot see members of this team during the day time. They operate during the night."
Replying to a question, he said he had informed his mentor, Mr Kharge and then quit the Congress to join the BJP.
“The sad part is even after Mr Kharge requested the party to consider me, the party ignored the plea," he said. It was in 2008 after the assembly elections that veteran leader, Margaret Alva made serious charges of sale of tickets. Then, Mr Kharge was the KPCC president. The party tried to investigate the charges and finally put a lid on it saying nothing of that sort had happened.