The former MP from Tumakuru, S.P. Muddahanume Gowda, on Thursday, quit the BJP and joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC chief and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, at the party office here.
He had quit the Congress for being “sidelined” in the party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He had won the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 as the Congress candidate.
The Congress had denied the ticket to Mr. Gowda to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The JD(S) and the Congress had entered into an alliance to fight the elections against the BJP and fielded the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda from Tumakuru constituency. But Mr. Deve Gowda was defeated in the elections by G.S. Basavaraj of the BJP.
The Congress is likely to field Mr. Mudduhanume Gowda in Tumakuru in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
