Rai’s show of strength at press meet

MANGALORE: The presence of seven block Congress presidents at a press meet convened by the former minister Ramanatha Rai in the city recently seems to be just an effort to project Rai as the most ideal candidate to be the next district Congress president. Rai who had convened the press meet to share his joy over the victory of the party candidate in the Ullal by-election, said the result made it evident that the BJP’s communal agenda had no takers in the district and that even those at the helm of affairs in the government could do nothing to defeat the congress.
The Ullal results, he said would have an adverse bearing on the state government. Block Congress presidents Suresh Ballal, Prithviraj R, Eshwar Ullal, Padmashekhar Jain, Harish Kumar, PP Varghese, Sarvottam Gowda, former presidents KP Thomas, Nonayya Poojari, party leader BM Idinabba, mayor Vijaya Arun, former mayors K Ashraf, Shashidhar Hegde, Hilda Alva, former ZP chief Mamatha Gatti, DCC vice president Ivan D’Souza and others were present on the occasion.
Thus the presence of the seven block congress chiefs at the press meet seems to be conveying a message to the sitting DCC Chief Blasius D’Souza that their support is for Ramanatha Rai as the next DCC chief.
Already the DCC in-charge Ramanatha Rai is being projected as Blasius D’Souza’s successor.