In fact, the five Congress MLAs had sought an appointment with the chairman of the State Legislative Council and the Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly to formally resign from the party.

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Kolar district shares a border with two states,  Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. And factionalism has been the hallmark of this district especially among  Congress leaders. The district became famous after the Kannada blockbuster, KGF which had been shot in Kolar Gold Fields.

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Though there was no gold in this mining area,  it has been a battle field for rival Congress factions to settle scores both in electoral politics and outside.

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Now, the present rivalry is between former union minister and the current MLA from Devanahalli K H.Muniyappa,  and former speaker of the Legislative Assembly, K.R.Ramesh Kumar.

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They don't see eye to eye or even talk to each other. In fact, both of them blame each other for their defeats in the Assembly and parliamentary polls. In 2019, Muniyappa lost to a little known BJP candidate thanks to tacit support from Ramesh Kumar and his followers. In 2023, Ramesh Kumar lost the election allegedly due to backroom games by Muniyappa and his friends.

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Now, both the leaders are angling for a ticket for their candidate. While Muniyappa has demanded a ticket for his son-in-law, Chikka Peddanna, the leaders owing allegiance to Ramesh Kumar want the ticket for him.

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With both leaders pushing their respective candidature  it has become a big headache for the high command to decide between the two candidates.

Muniyappa had met AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge a couple of times to push his candidate. Coming to know about it, five legislators -  Kolar MLA Kothur Manjunath, Bangarapet MLA Narayanaswamy, Minister Dr. MC Sudhakar and MLCs Anil Kumar, Nazir Ahmed have come forward and threatened to resign if that happens. They had sought the appointment of the speaker and the chairman to tender their resignation.

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As the news reached Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who has been camping in Mysore to draw up poll strategies, he alerted the Delhi leaders and asked them to keep that seat pending in view of reports of resignation by five MLAs including a minister as it would send a wrong signal. The CM has asked the five legislators to meet him in Bengaluru immediately to discuss this issue and urged them not to take any decision in haste.

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Thus far , the ruling Congress party has not been able to decide candidates for four constituencies. The Chamarajanagar seat announcement had been pending due to the alleged difference of opinion between the CM and Social Welfare Minister Dr H.C.Mahadevappa who has demanded a ticket for his son, Sunil Bose.

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This has given room for suspicion that the CM didn't want the growth of Sunil Bose as the second line leader at the cost of his son and former MLA, Dr Yatindra Siddaramaiah.

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The biggest task before the high command is to decide on these last four seats in Karnataka as it has the potential to rock the months-old government led by the CM Siddaramaiah.