Mangaluru: The Kundapur unit of the Youth Congress has urged the party’s high command to make K. Pratapchandra Shetty, MLC, a Minister in the Cabinet of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy so that Udupi district gets a representation in government.

Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Ichitartha Shetty, president of Kundapur Youth Congress Committee, said that Mr. Pratapchandra Shetty was the senior-most Congress leader in Udupi district. Mr. Pratapchandra Shetty was Congress MLA from Kundapur Assembly Constituency for four terms from 1983 to 1999. Since then, he had thrice been elected as MLC from the local bodies constituency.

His appointment had become necessary as the Congress had lost in all five Assembly seats in the district in the recently concluded elections. Despite being the senior-most legislator, Mr. Pratapchandra Shetty had never sought or lobbied for Ministerial berth and not objected to other Congress leaders such as Vinaykumar Sorake and Pramod Madhwaraj becoming Ministers.

He had not taken any other positions such as chairmanship of boards or corporations. He had always supported Mr. Sorake and Mr. Madhwaraj, when they were Udupi district in-charge Ministers. He had served as president of Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee, when Udupi was part of Dakshina Kannada district, during testing times for the Congress.

Hence, Mr. Pratapchandra Shetty was well known in both the districts. He was now the lone elected legislator (MLC) of a major community, Bunts, from both these districts in the Congress. He was not facing any charges of any kind of corruption or irregularities and he always worked along with party workers. His appointment as a Minister would enthuse the Congress workers in Udupi district, he said.

Instead of appointing any outsider as Udupi district in-charge Minister, it would be better if Mr. Shetty was inducted into the Cabinet and appointed as district in-charge Minister. His long innings as an MLA and MLC meant that he was aware of all the problems in the district, Mr. Ichitartha Shetty said.

Ramesh Shetty, Nataraj Holla, Sampath Shetty, Vijay Poojary, leaders of Kundapur Youth Congress, were present.