Is Ivan D 'Souza a victim of Catholic politics ' in Congress?

Mangalore, Jun 18: The long-cherished hopes of Congress leader Ivan D 'Souza of being nominated as a Member of Legislative Council seem to have been dashed due to the intense lobbying by delegations led by fellow party leaders against his nomination.

Although Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had reportedly finalised the nomination of Mr D 'Souza, a Catholic leader, as an MLC, the nomination list had to be amended on the recommendation of party supremo Sonia Gandhi after certain local party leaders belonging to same community opposed the nomination.

It is said that delegations led by AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes and Mangalore South MLA J R Lobo had opposed the nomination of Ivan D 'Souza as an MLC.

Despite assurances by Siddaramaiah, who had approved nominating Mr D 'Souza as an MLC apparently due to their shared connection in the past as members of Janata Parivar, the latter had to forego his dream to be nominated to the legislative council.

Mr D 'Souza had previously contested from Dakshina Kannada in the assembly elections in 2008 and had lost. Having denied the ticket in the next assembly elections in 2013, he had been aspiring to rise to a prominent position in the party by being nominated to the legislative council.

However, no sooner than his name had been doing the rounds to be nominated as an MLC, the faction of party workers led by J R Lobo paid a visit to the state in-charge Digvijay Singh urging him to consider nominating a Congress leader from the Hindu or Jain community.

A disheartened Ivan D 'Souza said that he had been robbed of an opportunity to serve the people of Dakshina Kannada due to inner politics in the party.

Meanwhile, Mr Lobo denied that he and fellow party workers had lobbied against the nomination of Ivan D 'Souza. “Rather, we have urged the state in-charge of party affairs Digvijay Singh and former minister Oscar Fernandes to consider the names of deserving party leaders such as former MLA Vijaykumar Shetty and Suresh Ballal for the legislative council,” he said, indicating that it had nothing to do with communities.

Meanwhile, sources within the Congress party in Mangalore said that few prominent Catholic political leaders in coastal Karnataka were trying to curb alternative political leadership in their community. The Janata Parivar link of Mr D 'Souza is also said to be one of the reasons for other local Congress leaders ' effort to isolate him in the party.