Mangalore, April 6, 2013
Miffed by the denial of ticket by Congress to contest from Mangalore South constituency for the forthcoming assembly elections, supporters of Congress leader Ivan D Souza staged a protest in front of District Congress Office, today.
Supporters of Ivan including former Mayor Ashraf, General Secretary of District Congress Michael Lobo, Mithun Rai and Praveen Chandra Alva and many others who took part in the protest march alleged that by giving ticket to J R Lobo who joined the Congress just three months ago, the party has done great disservice to Ivan D Souza who has been working in the party for the last 10 years.
Addressing protestors District Congress General Secretary Michael Lobo said that the party which had assured of ticket to Ivan till Friday did a sudden volte-face and issued ticket to J R Lobo. Ivan’s supporters said their protest is not against J R Lobo but against the injustice done to Ivan D Souza.
Former mayor Ahraf said that when Ivan’s supporters asked senior Congress leader Janardhana Poojary about the denial of ticket to Ivan, he passed the buck on Oscar Fernandes and Oscar Fernandes in turn told the name of Senior Congress leader and Union Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily which clearly demonstrates that they all wanted a pretext to deny ticket to Ivan.
Ivan worked hard for the party forpast ten years tirelessly.Last election even though there was BJP wave he bagged more than 50,000 votes. Congress selection committee was telling that they will give preference to youngsters. They will give seats to all those who contested for the first time and lost for less than 10,000 votes. He lost for less than 8,000 votes against the BJP wave and bagged more than 50,000 votes. Ronald Colaco has played dirty politics. He wants to buy everything by money. If congress leaders bow to dirty industrialists then their fate will be like BJP to Reddy’s