Southern States - Karnataka   

Defection leaves Cong. in a quandary

By Our Staff Correspondent

HASSAN NOV. 15. The district unit of the Congress faces a problematic situation with the defection of five zilla panchayat members from the Congress to the Janata Dal (Secular) and filing of nomination papers by two Congress rebels for the posts of the President and the Vice-President of the Hassan Zilla Panchayat.

The party leaders have decided to report the matter to the Congress High Command and seek the expulsion of the five members from the primary membership of the party.

Disclosing this at a press conference here on Saturday, the Revenue Minister and district in-charge, H.C. Srikantaiah, said the party High Command would take disciplinary action against those who had defected from the party.

Mr. Srikantaiah, who was visibly embarrassed by the developments, said it was not possible to discipline those who were after power. "The party is not worried about loosing control over the zilla panchayat. What disturbed us most was the defection by those who enjoyed power because of the party."

However, Mr. Srikantaiah said the party would evolve an alternative strategy to deal with the developments.

Blaming the President of the zilla panchayat, G.S. Gurusiddappa, for the current state of affairs, he said the reason for the defection was that he had negated a few "unreasonable" demands put forth by the members. He said he would disclose those demands in future.

He said the party was yet to finalise the candidates for the posts of the President and the Vice-President of the zilla panchayat.

He said the defection of the zilla panchayat members would not affect the party's prospectus in the Council elections scheduled to be held on December 1. There was consensus in the district Congress on the selection of S.M. Anand as the party's candidate.

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