Five Cong legislators threaten to quit in Karnataka over ticket allocation issue
Bengaluru (PTI): Five Congress legislators on Wednesday threatened to resign over the issue of Lok Sabha ticket to senior party leader and Minister K H Muniyappa's son-in-law Chikka Peddanna to contest from Kolar in the coming Lok Sabha elections, bringing into open the divisions in the outfit.
The party is yet to announce its candidate in the segment.
The five are opposed to Peddanna's candidature, which would give representation for the Left sect of Scheduled Castes.
The three MLAs from Kolar district - Kothur G Manjunath (Kolar), K Y Nanjegowda (Malur) and MC Sudhakar (Chintamani) - and two MLCs - Anil Kumar and Naseer Ahmed (political secretary to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah) - want the ticket to be given to a candidate from Right sect of Scheduled Castes.
Sudhakar is the Higher Education Minister in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet.
S N Narayanaswamy (Bangarapet), another Congress MLA from the district, too said the ticket should be given to SC Right candidate, and that he will decide on his move, once the party decides on the Kolar ticket.
"This is continuation of a fight between two factions of the Kolar Congress, one led by food and civil supplies minister K H Muniyappa and another by former Karnataka assembly speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, vying for supremacy in the district", a party insider said.
Some even see it as pressure tactics on the part of a section of Congress leaders in Kolar against Muniyappa and his "family politics' '.
The two MLCs met Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti and showed their resignation letters to journalists.
The MLAs were planning to travel to Mangaluru to meet Assembly Speaker U T Khader there, but later cancelled their trip as the latter himself said he is on his way to Bengaluru.
However, the legislators later said they have decided to wait following instructions from Siddaramaiah and the party state President D K Shivakumar on their future course of action.
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Puducherry (PTI): Puducherry experienced heavy rains on Saturday morning prompting the union territory administration to send SMS alerts to around 12 lakh residents cautioning them to remain vigilant as cyclonic storm Fengal is expected to make landfall near here later in the day.
District Collector A Kulothungan told PTI that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure that people remained safe.
"We have evacuated people from low lying areas and shelter homes are ready to accommodate them. Arrangements were also made to supply food packets," he said adding that National Disaster Relief Force from Arakonam has arrived to engage in relief and rehabilitation works.
According to the official, cyclone Fengal was expected to cross the coast in the evening. Control rooms have been opened in the collectorate and also in the line departments.
Toll free numbers 112, 1077 and also WhatsApp number 94889 81070 have been put in place to help people facing crisis to contact for help.
Cyclone Fengal is likely to cross between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram coasts close to Puducherry, official sources said. The government has advised people to stay indoors.
The entire stretch of beach road and also several tourist spots were closed to ensure that there was no movement of the people near the sea shore.
Schools and colleges remained closed today.
