Hubballi: Upset over senior Congress leader H.K. Patil being denied a Cabinet berth, over 200 elected representatives of the party from Gadag district have submitted their resignation letters to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president and deputy Chief Minister, Dr G Parameshwar.
Zilla and taluk panchayat members and city and town municipal members of all taluks, including the Congress district presidents have sent in their resignations as part of their strategy to exert pressure on the party high command to accommodate Mr Patil in the Cabinet.
Meanwhile, as protests continued in Gadag with angry party workers setting tyres on fire on the streets, the shirt of a police constable of the intelligence department accidentally caught fire.
But he escaped unhurt as the people around quickly extinguished the fire. The protesters demanded that Mr Patil should be made minister as it could help strengthen the Congress in Mumbai-Karnataka, where it had suffered a big jolt these polls with a majority of its legislators losing the elections in the region.
“Mr Patil has won several prizes for making 18 districts open defecation-free and setting up around 11,000 water purification plants across the state. He has been denied a ministerial berth despite his vast experience in panchayat raj, rural development and the co-operative sector. So we have to no choice but to submit our resignation in protest against the Congress top brass sidelining him during the recent Cabinet expansion,” said Gadag Zilla Panchayat president Vasanna Kurudagi.
