Bengaluru: Repeatedly denied election tickets over the years, a disappointed former minister and Congress leader MR Seetharam on Friday attacked the Congress leadership for ignoring him and said that he would decide his next move in July.
“I am not upset with the party, but with its leadership. I have toiled for the party since 1983 and I am as senior party leader as any other,” he said addressing a convention of the Balija community at Palace Grounds.
Expressing his disappointment, Seetharam said the party did not field him from Malleshwaram in the 2013 assembly elections, instead, the then general secretary KC Venugopal wanted him to contest from the constituency in 2018, which he refused.
He also complained that the party leadership did not renominate him in the MLC elections that followed. “Since the party did not renominate me, CM Ibrahim and K Goviddaraj were renominated,” he said.
In 2020 and in recently held MLC elections too, he was overlooked, Seetharam said adding that he would convene a huge meeting with his supporters about whether to stay in the party or quit.
Pointing out to his son Raksha Ramaiah’s erstwhile tenure as Karnataka Youth Congress President, Seetharam said it was a gift to him, but lamented that Raksha was not given a chance to complete his full term in favor of Shantinagar MLA NA Haris’ son Mohammed Haris Nalapad.
