Feuding factions worry Karnataka Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress is struggling to make its powerful leaders from Karnataka, mostly central ministers, to work cohesively in the assembly elections in May, despite a big win in the recent civic elections. Senior Congress leaders are aware that the party's gains as a credible political option for the electorate has been made possible only by a tumultuous BJP regime under three chief ministers.

Karnataka Congress is plagued with factionalism, with different groups divided along community equations on the eve of the assembly polls. The Congress leadership is worried that a feuding Karnataka unit could end up creating something similar to the near-slip in Uttarakhand, or worse, Punjab, where it was trounced from a position of strength.

As screening candidates begins, each leader would want tickets for his supporters, complicating the process. Petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily, labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge, minority affairs minister K Rahman Khan, minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises KH Muniyappa, former chief minister N Dharam Singh, national general secretary BK Hariprasad and CWC member Oscar Fernandes are the Karnataka heavy weights at the Centre. "Every leader would want his pound of flesh, as ticket distribution starts. The process is also supposed to indicate who is being favoured by the high command. So it becomes an ego issue and we may have sulking leaders at the time of campaigning," a senior party functionary said.

The problem was there even during the recent civic polls.