Mangaluru: The Congress here is again seeing a tussle between supporters of district in-charge minister, Ramanath Rai and urban development minister, Vinay Kumar Sorake . This time it is over the appointment of the head of the Mangaluru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

While Mr Rai is backing Mr Ibrahim Kodichal, in-charge president of the District Congress Committee (DCC) for the post, the Sorake camp claims he does not qualify for it under the Karnataka Planning Authority rules, 1965.

“Rai is hell bent on making Kodichal chairman of MUDA. But he is not qualified for the post as under the rules the chairman and all members of the civic body must be specialists like economists, geologists, sociologists or legal practitioners.

Ibrahim who is a businessman dealing mostly with real estate does not qualify,” argue Mr Sorake’s supporters. Sources, meanwhile, confirmed that the appointment of Mr Kodichal to MUDA has been delayed due to the intervention of Mr Sorake.

Despite his group’s insistence on sticking to the rules, the rival group points out that they have not been applied when appointing the chairman of MUDA in the past.

“Except Tejomaya there has been no other chairman who qualified for it under the rules,” they recall. There are now fears that the Sorake group could create legal hurdles if Mr Rai has his way.

“Recently, the Karnataka high court took serious note of the appointment of a person with a criminal background to the Kanakapura Planning Authority after an RTI activist filed a petition against it. If someone approaches the court after Mr Ibrahim is appointed as MUDA head, he too could face a similar problem, ” said a leader.