In a jolt to Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka, Kudligi MLA N Y Gopalakrishna on Friday resigned as legislator, ahead of the May 10 Assembly polls in the state. He is likely to join the Congress. Gopalakrishna met Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri at his office and submitted his resignation.
He had recently met senior State Congress leaders D K Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, and held discussions, as reported by PTI. Gopalakrishna was earlier with the Congress and had got elected from Molakalmuru Assembly segment in Chitradurga district four times (1997, 1999, 2004 and 2008). He had joined the BJP ahead of the elections after being denied a ticket from Congress.
The party gave him a ticket from Kudligi in Vijayanagara district instead of Molakalmuru, as senior leader Sriramulu was fielded from there. He had won from there. Earlier this month, two MLCs from BJP -- Puttanna and Baburao Chinchansur -- quit from their Legislative Council membership to join the Congress.
JD(S) MLA S R Srinivas (Gubbi Srinivas alias Vasu) on Thursday joined the Congress, after resigning as MLA on March 27. Shivakumar said on Thursday there is a "long list of people" wishing to join the Congress and it will be made known in stages, in the days to come. On March 29, the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the poll schedule for the election of 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The state will go to polls on May 10 and the votes will be counted on May 13.