The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Youth Congress leaders in State seek recognition for their work

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Friday, Sep 07, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Youth Congress leaders in State seek recognition for their work

Special Correspondent

But senior leader B.K. Hariprasad tells them not to beg for posts or positions

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Start of campaign: (From left) Congress leaders N. Dharam Singh, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, Sadananda Dangannavar, B.K. Hariprasad and H.K. Patil at the inauguration of the membership drive by the State Youth Congress in Bangalore on Thursday.

Bangalore: Youth Congress workers, who gathered in huge numbers at the membership drive launched by the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee (KPYCC), here witnessed a divide among the senior leaders on providing more representation to them in the ensuing civic elections in which the party was fielding over 5,000 candidates.

Dinesh Gundu Rao, MLA and a former president of the KPYCC, said the party had come to power because of the hard work by the Youth Congress members. Supporting KPYCC president Sadananda Dangannavar for giving 35 per cent of seats to Youth Congress workers in the elections, Mr. Rao said the claim of the office-bearers of the National Students Union of India and other youth wings should be recognised.

The local office-bearers at the district and taluk levels should be allowed to occupy positions after holding elections to the posts and the others should not be thrust upon just because somebody had opposed them.

The grassroots workers should be encouraged by the leaders at the national and State level when the former had capacity and courage to work, Mr. Rao added.

The former Minister, R.V. Deshpande, promised that the Youth Congress workers would be given 65 per cent of the seats in the urban local body elections. He called upon them to defeat the coalition partners in the next elections.

AICC general secretary B.K. Hariprasad opposed the demand and even admonished the Youth Congress workers.

He asked them to stop begging for posts and positions in the party or for tickets to contest elections.

Upset by the constant disturbance by the workers, he said “Be disciplined first. Concentrate on building the party. I have seen how the party candidates were defeated by the dissidents in the elections.”

Another former Minister, D.K. Shivakumar, launched a tirade against the former Prime Minister , H.D. Deve Gowda, and the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, for their party’s boycott of the presidential elections. Earlier, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly N. Dharam Singh, State Congress president M. Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr. Hariprasad and Mr. Deshpande alleged that communal forces were raising their ugly head in the State and they should be removed from power.

Mr. Singh said that reactionary forces in the State were at the helm because of the greed for power of the Janata Dal (S). Mr. Kharge, who launched the drive, said that the Janata Dal (S)-BJP came to power because the Congress rebels worked against the party candidates in the elections.

Mr. Kharge supported the Youth Congress workers demand for positions at the district and taluk levels, and urged them to fight the Janata Dal (S) and the BJP.

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