"Meeting" challenges, 100 years late

SHIMOGA, May 19: The Shimoga District Congress Committee (SDCC) created a record-of-sorts on Monday: For the first time in the history of the 100-year-old party unit, it convened a meeting! None other than SDCC president Ismail Khan revealed this at a media conference.

Though he did not divulge the reasons for this "delay", his revelation did not surprise those who have been observing the developments within the SDCC for the last one decade. The committee has not held any meeting for quite some time now though the party has seen several ups and downs. It has been much of a downhill ride though, after the late Gulam Abid — who was the SDCC president’s post for nearly two decades — relinquished the post in 1990-91 to Mallikarjuna Rao, a close associate of Bangarappa.

Mallikarjuna Rao left the Congress along with Bangarappa, following which Chandrashekharappa became the president. He was reelected as the president in the election held two years ago after Bangarappa was readmitted into the Congress.However, this was disputed in the court. Ismail was then made the president. Soon after, the telephone was disconnected for non-payment of bills. The party vehicle is lying unused in the garage.

But Ismail is trying to set the house in order by touring the district to mobilise workers. And of course, by organising meetings.