Cong dilemma: To give tickets to turncoats or not

In his maiden speech after being appointed vice-president in Jaipur,Rahul had decried the practice of rewarding turncoats. “People from other parties come before elections,contest elections and then fly out by aeroplane. There is a need to take action against those who rebel (against the party) and contest as Independents,” he had said at the AICC session in Jaipur in January.

Subsequently,in his meetings with party office-bearers and MPs,he has been critical of the prevailing practice in the party rewarding rebels and turncoats,which once prompted a senior party leader to suggest a “cooling off” period of six years for those who join the party.

Rahul’s strong stance on this issue has put party leaders in a big dilemma. At least three former Congressmen who had successfully contested as Independents against party candidates in the 2008 elections — Venkataramanappa,D Sudhakar and PM Narendraswamy — are seeking Congress tickets,according to sources. Then,there are those who had been elected on Congress ticket but were weaned away by the BJP through the so-called Operation Lotus — C P Yogeshwar,Narasimha Naik alias Raju Gouda and Pratap Gouda Patil.

To bolster its numbers in the Assembly,the BJP had got these Congress MLAs to resign from their seats and get re-elected on BJP tickets. Many of them had been rewarded with ministerial posts. With the winds blowing against the BJP,they are all seeking to return to the Congress fold.

Some of them swear by their loyalty to the Congress,arguing that they had to quit the party due to differences with certain leaders.

Yogeshwar,for instance,was said to have quit the Congress due to differences with SM Krishna’s protege DK Shiv Kumar and Raju Gouda had reportedly quit following differences with Mallikarjun Kharge.