Bengaluru: Major Irrigation and Medical Education minister DK Shivakumar is considered a strongman in the Congress party circles. He was appointed as the party in-charge for the Ballari Lok Sabha byelection, assuming that he is the only one who can counter the Reddy brothers and BJP leader B Sriramulu in their home turf.
But believe it or not, even after convening three meetings he has reportedly failed to bring all the Congress MLAs from the district on board to discuss the party strategy for the upcoming election.
According to the Congress sources, since last three days, DKS was forced to cancel three meetings of the Ballari Congress leaders as MLAs are not ready to attend his meeting.
“Every MLA wants his friend or relative as the party candidate and they are all avoiding DKShi fearing that he may foil their plans,” said a party leader from Ballari who wished to be unnamed.
“MLC VS Ugrappa wants to try his luck. DKS is also favoring him. It is not going down well with the party leaders,” he said.
“DKS personally invited all the MLAs to the meeting, but all the four MLAs including Anand Singh are not turning up. This reveals how strong the MLAs of this mining district are, ” he added.
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