Bengaluru: Laxman Savadi, a former deputy chief minister of Karnataka, left the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and joined the Congress, on Friday, after he was denied party ticket in the upcoming Assembly Elections.
Savadi wanted to run for the Athani Assembly seat, but the BJP decided to nominate Mahesh Kumathalli, an incumbent. Since, some existing MLAs and veterans were dropped from the list of candidates as a result of Savadi’s resignation, there has been unhappiness within the BJP’s Karnataka unit. To finalize his entrance to the Congress, Savadi met with Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah and senior Congressman Shivakumar on Friday.
After former deputy chief minister of Karnataka Laxman Savadi decided to join the Congress, BJP Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh asserted that Savadi had made a huge mistake and would eventually regret it.
On Friday, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he was “saddened” by the choice of former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi to leave the BJP and join the Congress.
The Karnataka unit of the BJP was upset with the decision to drop veterans and sitting MLAs from the list of candidates.
“There is no condition,” Shivakumar added in reference to the “humiliation” Laxman Savadi endured at the BJP. He considers himself to have been humiliated. We must get such outstanding leaders within the Congress Party. There are more than nine or ten sitting MLAs who want to join us, but there isn’t room for them.
Savadi, who was defeated by Mahesh Kumathalli in the 2018 elections, was informed that Kumathalli would be given the ticket to run in Athani instead. Kumathalli, a sitting MLA, was one of the defectors that enabled the BJP to topple the Congress-JD(S) coalition government and establish its rule in 2019 under the direction of B S Yediyurappa.