AICC leader responsible for Kudachi being denied ticket?
9:52 AM Posted by ukmad
Vijaykumar Patil
Kudachi defeated MES candidates in 1999 and 2004
He has joined JD(S) and is contesting in the same segment
Even as some tend to point figures at senior Congress leader and former Minister A.B. Patil for the Congress having denied ticket to two-time MLA Ramesh L. Kudachi to contest from Belgaum North, there is none to unravel the hidden faces behind the development.
Sources close to Mr. Kudachi told The Hindu here on Wednesday that a senior leader in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) from Maharashtra had deliberately denied ticket to the former to help the MES in Belgaum North. The sources said that the AICC leader had personally told Mr. Kudachi not to insist on ticket this time.
The MES, which was defeated twice by Mr. Kudachi in the 1999 and 2004 Assembly elections, is trying hard to re-capture its lost bastion. But, it would have been difficult for the MES to have its candidate elected as long as Mr. Kudachi continued to contest as Congress candidate. Therefore, the MES was keen to see that Mr. Kudachi did not get party ticket and therefore, took the help of the AICC leader from Maharashtra.
Mr. Kudachi, who quit the Congress after being denied ticket and joined the Janata Dal(S) on Wednesday, is all set to contest from Belgaum North as the latter’s candidate. He took the decision not in a haste but after being convinced that there was no justice in the Congress, which was not prepared to honour his services and contribution. He said it was under his leadership that the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi was shown the door for the first time in the 1999 Assembly elections and again in 2004. This was history in its own right as Belgaum city had been an impregnable fortress of the MES or the Marathi-speaking community since the 1957 elections.
He was also confident of being elected for the third time, which meant a precious seat for Congress which is hoping to form the government on its own in the State. But the leaders in the party were not prepared to do justice to his services, he alleged.
He, however, also maintained that the AICC leader from Maharashtra was fully responsible for denying him ticket only to please the MES. But in the process he [AICC leader] did not realise that the Congress could lose one precious seat, he said.
Ramesh Kudachi quits to join JD(S)
7:24 AM Posted by ukmad
Beleaguered by the growing rebellion over refusal of ticket to aspirants, the Congress was served another jolt by its two-time MLA Ramesh L. Kudachi on Wednesday.
Mr. Kudachi, who was denied ticket to contest from Belgaum North, quit the Congress and joined the Janata Dal(S) today. The Janata Dal(S) lost no moment to project him as its official candidate from Belgaum North. The Janata Dal(S) will shortly organise a party workers meeting to admit “hundreds of Congress workers loyal to Mr. Kudachi”.
The decision was announced at a crowded press conference addressed by the vice-president of the State Janata Dal(S) and former Minister, Umesh V. Katti, and district unit president Ashok Pujari. Along with Mr. Kudachi, Dalit youth leader Mallesh Chougale also joined the party.
Mr. Kudachi, who quit Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) and contested as a Congress candidate in the 1999 Assembly elections, created history by winning against the MES from the erstwhile Belgaum City then. With his election was broken the electoral hegemony of the MES, the pro-Maharashtra outfit surviving on the single-point issue of “boundary dispute” (demanding transfer of Belgaum, Nippani, Khanapur, Bidar, Karwar and other boundary areas to Maharashtra for over five decades).
He was again elected in the 2004 elections. Earlier, he had served as Mayor of the Belgaum City Corporation when he was an active leader in the MES.
Asked about the reasons for his decision to quit the Congress, he said a section of the top leaders of the party ensured that he did not get ticket much against the party’s guidelines on allotment of ticket.
The party had decided to give ticket to all its members of the previous Assembly, while it could consider for alternative candidates in constituencies whose constitution, after delimitation, had been affected by more than 50 per cent. But the party leaders showed disregard to this guideline and refused him the ticket even when 85 per cent of the areas in the erstwhile Belgaum City constituency have remained “intact” in the new Belgaum North Assembly constituency.
Ye nahi Woh Sahi:Magar Kursi Chaiye
11:11 AM Posted by ukmad
TWO-TIME Congress MLA Ramesh Kudachi, whom the party denied a ticket to contest from Belgaum North segment, is likely to quit the party and is planning to contest from other party.
Kudachi,who arrived from Bangalore this morning told The New Indian Express, that he would take a final decision after consulting the party workers, in a day or two. He also told that Janata Dal (Secular), Bahujan Samaj Party and his former party Janata Dal (United) have contacted him and have assured him ticket from Belgaum North segment.
He said that he rejected the offer of Congress, which had asked him to contest from Belgaum South as only a 20 per cent area of his old segment was included in South segment after delimitation. 'I had asked the party to retain me in Belgaum North, as 80 per cent area of my old segment remains in the North constituency,'.
He, will now contest from other party. I want to ask all these candidates" Do they have any ethics in place? or is that its all for the people, not for themselves."
This is seen in all parties these days. You dont get a ticket from one party leave that join another get a ticket, next time they dont give you so you go back to the first party you left. Wow this is opportunism and nothing else. If you are so sure that you can win the election stand as an independent without any political party support and win. People will definitely vote for a person who is good.
Kya hoga is Desh ka.