The Indian Youth Congress (IYC), on Monday, announced that Raksha Ramaiah, who was appointed the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress president following the elections held in January this year, would continue as the president till January 31, 2022, after which Mohammed Nalapad would take over the same day.
With IYC president B.V. Srinivas announcing the power-sharing formula, the bitter feud that ensued between the two youth leaders for months seems to have finally ended. The duo will be the KPYC presidents for 18 months each.
In January this year, Ramaiah, son of former minister M.R. Seetharam, was locked in a triangular fight with Mohammed Nalapad, son of Shanthinagar MLA N. A. Haris, and student leader H.S. Manjunath.
Interestingly, Ramaiah was announced the winner though he bagged only 57,271 votes when Nalapad had got 64,203 votes. Nalapad was disqualified despite winning the highest number of votes, while Manjunath, who bagged 18,137 votes became the vice-president. The poll result triggered protests by Nalapad supporters.
The stalemate that continued for months exposed the power tussle between KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar and CLP leader Siddaramaiah, too, as the former supported Nalapad and the latter favoured Ramaiah.
The Foundation for Advanced Management of Election (FAME), which acted as the poll panel for Congress, disqualified Nalapad because of a pending criminal case. He was involved in a drunken brawl in 2018, and had even spent time in jail.
Ramaiah, who holds an MBA degree from Cardiff University, worked in the social media department of the party prior to his election.