Former Karnataka Minister Rajanna flags lack of women representation in Congress district appointments

Bengaluru, Sep 15 (IANS) Former Karnataka minister and Congress MLA, K.N. Rajanna, on Tuesday objected to the party’s recent appointment of presidents for 35 district party units, pointing out that no woman leader had been appointed to the posts.

It can be noted that Rajanna is a close associate of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He had directly challenged Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and batted for a Dalit Chief Minister in case of Siddaramaiah’s replacement.

He was allegedly sacked from his Cabinet post after his alleged comment against Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, over the “vote chori” issue.

Rajanna raised the issues during his meetings with KPCC President B.K. Hariprasad and Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara in Bengaluru on Tuesday. He first met Parameshwara at his Sadashivanagar residence and later called on Hariprasad at his residence.

Speaking to reporters, Rajanna said his discussions with both leaders were mainly about the party organisation in his Tumakuru district.

“I had gone to meet the KPCC President Hariprasad and Parameshwara. We discussed various issues, mainly about the party organisation in the district,” he said.

Rajanna said he brought to Hariprasad’s notice that none of the 35 newly-appointed district presidents was a woman.

“I told him that among the 35 party district presidents appointed recently, there is no woman candidate. I asked him to bring these shortcomings to the notice of AICC General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, who are arriving in Bengaluru today,” he said.

He also alleged that backward classes had not received adequate representation in the appointments.

“Leaders belonging to backward classes are only eight among the 35. Even among these eight, proper social engineering has not been done,” Rajanna said.

He said Hariprasad told him that he was also aware of the shortcomings and would convey the concerns to the party’s national leadership.

Rajanna also clarified that he did not intend to contest the next Assembly election but would contest the Lok Sabha election in the future. He said Parameshwara had asked him about his plans to contest elections and appreciated his decision.

Rajanna said he shared a close association with Hariprasad dating back to their Youth Congress days. He recalled that in 1979, Hariprasad was the state general secretary, K.J. George was the president and he was the district president, and said they had worked together as colleagues.

Asked about reports that he was unhappy after losing the Karnataka Apex Bank president’s post, Rajanna said his primary concern was the functioning of cooperative institutions rather than securing a position.

“I have been in this movement for 50 years. Contesting for a position is secondary for me. My interest is in cooperative institutions, particularly an institution like Apex Bank, which should work in tune with the government,” he said.

He said the government pays thousands of crores of rupees every year towards farmers’ interest and warned that any confrontation with the government could ultimately affect farmers and the cooperative institution.

–IANS

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