K’taka: Youth Congress suspends six office-bearers over Delhi rally absence
Haveri: Six office-bearers of the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress (KPYCC), including Darshan Kumar Lamani, son of Minister for Sugar and Textiles and Haveri District In-charge Minister Rudrappa Lamani, have been suspended with immediate effect for remaining absent from party programmes held in Delhi.
The national leadership of the Indian Youth Congress issued the suspension order on Friday, taking serious note of their repeated absence from organisational activities, including the Congress protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the ‘Sansad Chalo’ programme organised in Delhi.
The six office-bearers will remain under suspension until further orders. The leadership reportedly took the decision after observing that they had repeatedly failed to attend programmes and fulfil the responsibilities assigned to them.
Those suspended include state secretaries Abdul Aziz, Suraj Avati, Pawan Salian and Abhishek C.; Haveri District Youth Congress president Darshan Kumar Lamani and Karwar District Youth Congress president Subrahmanya Sirsikar.
Darshan Kumar Lamani was elected as the Haveri District Congress unit president through an organisational election. However, the party leadership took note of his failure to discharge the responsibilities entrusted to him and initiated disciplinary action.
The suspension order was issued by KPYCC president Manjunath H.S., National Secretary and KPYCC co-in-charge Tarika Bhagwana, and Srinivas Rathod. The suspended office-bearers have been allowed to present their explanations before the party forum.
It may be recalled that in November 2020, Darshan Lamani was detained and arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police in Goa along with two others, Hemanth Kumar and Suneesh, in connection with a synthetic drugs and darknet peddling case.
His father, Rudrappa Manappa Lamani, represents the Haveri Assembly constituency, reserved for Scheduled Castes, in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
He was elected unopposed as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly in July 2023 and has served in the post since then. He was inducted as the Minister for Textiles and Muzrai in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government between 2016-18.