The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Newcomers should wait: Jaffer Sharief

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Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
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Newcomers should wait: Jaffer Sharief

T.S. Ranganna

‘Do not demand ticket or position immediately after joining the party’

Jaffer Sharief

BANGALORE: “The Congress is not like a readymade garment which one can purchase and wear on the spot without taking the trouble of going to a tailor for stitching.

“The migrants have to wait for party ticket and positions,” the former Railway Minister and senior Congress leader, C.K. Jaffer Sharief, told The Hindu here on Thursday.

This was his response to the running feud between original and migrant Congressmen.

Coming on the heels of an open tussle between the former Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, and the former Minister, M. Mahadev, at a Youth Congress meeting in Mysore recently, Mr. Sharief said that those who have migrated to the Congress, and those waiting to join it, seeking greener pastures should wait till others were accommodated with ticket to contest in the Assembly elections.

Like those working or residing in the U.S. or the U.K. who wait for getting citizenship of the respective countries, the migrants have also to come in queue.

It is not correct on their part to demand ticket or position immediately after their joining the party.

Those who expect such a treatment should go to parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party or the Samajwadi Party, he added.

Former legislators and leaders from other parties have been knocking at the doors of the Congress because the others [parties] had failed, he said.

The loyal and original Congressmen should not be forced to suffer, he said and added that the party will not sacrifice their interests.

The migrants, he said, should also accept the ideology, polices and principles and the leadership of the Congress.

However, the Congress leader said that the High Command could consider factors such as “winnability” of a new candidate.

Some newcomers, he said, may or may not fit into the scheme of things that the party formulates for the elections.

Meanwhile, one of the general secretaries in the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee said that the High Command would in a week clear all confusions such as who would lead the KPCC and the various committees for election campaigning, and issues related to preparing the manifesto and publicity material.

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