Five days after Shah’s visit, BJP begins poaching

By NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: During his recent visit to Karnataka, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had reportedly asked the BJP’s state unit to onboard leaders from other political parties before the Assembly election.

Five days later, the party swung into action with the inclusion of former ministers and lawmakers from Congress and JD(S) into the party.

Madhwaraj (former minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government), K.V. Krishnamurthy (former All India Congress Committee secretary), Manjunath Gowda (former JD (S) MLA from Malur), Sandesh Nagaraj (former JD (S) MLC from Mysuru), Varthur Prakash (two-term independent MLA from Kolar), Dr Lakshmi Ashwini Gowda (former IRS officer) and Ashok Jayaram (son of former minister S T Jayaram from Mandya) were inducted into the saffron party by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday.

With this, the BJP hopes to make inroads into the Congress and JD(S) strongholds of Mandya, Kolar and Mysuru.

Madhwaraj joined the BJP soon after tendering his resignation to the Congress.

He had lost the 2018 Assembly election from Udupi. In his resignation letter addressed to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar, he stated that he faced ‘political suffocation’ and ‘his grievances were not addressed’.Welcoming the new joinees, Bommai said many more leaders would join the BJP before the Assembly election. “There is a pro-BJP wave across the State. The induction of new faces would strengthen the party and help to achieve the target of 150 seats in the Assembly poll,” he said.