Rift in Cong over Kolar candidate

Party leaders threaten to quit over move to give seat to food and civil supplies minister’s kin

- DEVARAJ B HIREHALLI/ V VELAYUDHAM

The Congress suffered a big jolt on Wednesday with the rift over the party’s candidate for Kolar LS seat reaching Vidhana Soudha. high drama prevailed there as five Congress legislators, including higher education minister Dr MC Sudhakar, of former speaker Ramesh Kumar faction threatened to resign if the party selected food and civil supplies minister Kh Muniyappa’s son-in-law Chikkapeddanna for the seat.

The JDS-BJP alliance is likely to take advantage of this opportunity as Muniyappa hails from the SC (left) community, which has a large number of voters in the old Mysuru region. It may even reach out to Chikkapeddanna, according to sources.