State Congress sets up panel to screen people aspiring to join it

Bengaluru: A 12-member committee has been formed by the Congress in Karnataka to screen leaders wanting to join or rejoin the party and give its recommendations.

Karnataka Congress President D K Shivakumar has constituted the committee headed by former state unit chief Allam Veerabhadrappa.

The panel would decide whether to allow leaders who had earlier quit the Congress and wanting to return and others wishing to join and submit a report to the KPCC, Shivakumar said in a release on Thursday night.

Senior party man and former legislator Hasanabba B A has been made the convenor of the committee of which leaders like V Muniyappa, Ajaykumar Sarnaik, Abhayachandra Jain among others are members.

Shivakumar on Friday said several people who had quit Congress in the past and those from other parties have sent in applications for party membership and have met him. “…as it is not right on my part to take unilateral decision, the committee has been constituted,” he told reporters here.

The committee will process the application and seek opinion from district and block level units also and take them into confidence to avoid any “misfire” at the ground level later, because of someone joining the party.

Interestingly the committee has been formed at a time when senior party leaders, including its Congress Legislature Party leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah, have openly stated that some MLAs from BJP have met him and shared their discontent about the state of affairs in the ruling party.

Shivakumar, who is yet to officially take over the reigns of the KPCC has declared that he wants to convert Congress into a cadre-based party.