Two prominent Lingayat leaders join Congress

Chikkamagaluru’s HD Thammaiah and Tumakuru district’s Kiran Kumar eye tickets in grand old party as they are being denied the same in BJP

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Two former BJP leaders from the Lingayat community joined the Congress on Sunday and non-availability of tickets in the saffron party for the upcoming Assembly elections is said to be the reason.

The relevance of the two additions to the grand old party is that HD Thammaiah, a Chikkamagaluru native is close to BJP general secretary CT Ravi. Thammaiah served in the BJP for 17 years and held many positions, including that of the Chikkamagaluru BJP district convenor, a post he recently quit. He was said to be eyeing the Chikkamagaluru constituency, currently held by Ravi.

The other new inductee is Kiran Kumar, a Yediyurappa loyalist, who hails from the Sadar Lingayat community, same as Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. He tendered his resignation on Sunday reportedly because he didn’t get the opportunity to contest from Chikkanayanahalli segment in Tumakuru district, currently held by State Law Minister JC Madhuswamy.

However, Kumar’s induction was not formally announced. Thammaiah joined the party in the presence of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar, who interpreted the influx of leaders from BJP and JD(S) to his party as a cry for change.

“The fact that these prominent leaders are joining the Congress is proof of the fact that the winds of change are blowing in the state. BJP’s national leaders are doing constituency-wise tours in the state. That’s not necessarily wrong. However, the fact that they are doing it out of fear of losing is quite clear,” Shivakumar said, making an obvious reference to recent tours of Karnataka being undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda.

Dozens of party workers joined the Congress alongside the two leaders. Thammaiah tried to downplay his ticket ambitions and said that he was joining Congress unconditionally, adding that he had quit the BJP because “current political developments” had disappointed him.

“It doesn’t matter who is the candidate of the Congress (in Chikkamagaluru). Anyone may become the candidate. A survey will be done and people’s opinion will be gathered under the Congress at the national level. Regardless of who becomes the candidate in the end, our work is to ensure our candidate wins over 51 per cent of the vote in every booth,” he said. Thammaiah also thanked Congress leader BL Shankar for being forthcoming to him.