Former Speaker K.B. Koliwad on Monday urged the Congress central leadership to immediately appoint a new State unit chief for the revival of the party machinery in Karnataka.
Speaking to reporters at his residence here, Mr. Koliwad, who lost the 2018 Assembly elections and the 2019 byelections, said the high command was dragging its feet on the appointment of a new chief of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.
The delay in appointing a Leader of the Opposition and a KPCC president will harm the party’s future, he said. He also said the Congress had become akin to “stagnant water” because of this. Noting that the imposition of conditions on the party high command by State leaders on the appointment of a new KPCC president did not augur well for the party’s future, Mr. Koliwad urged the central leaders to take a clear stance so that party workers do not lose confidence in their leadership.
He urged senior Congress leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge to assume leadership on the matter of choosing a new KPCC chief. Factionalism and groupism will do more harm to the party, Mr. Koliwad said, recalling how leaders such as D. Devaraj Urs, S. Bangarappa and S. Nijalingappa had got their tenures as Chief Minister shortened by opposing the party high command.
