BJP MLC H Vishwanath on Thursday announced that he will join the Congress Party today due to "political reasons". This comes as the Karnataka BJP has seen a slew of exits with several leaders quitting after being denied their choice of nomination in the May 10 election. Leaders like former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, minister S Angara, MLA M P Kumaraswamy, MLC R Shankar, Jagadish Shettar, and MLC Ayanur Manjunath have quit the BJP in recent days.
Speaking to news agency ANI, BJP MLC H Vishwanath said: "Today I am joining Congress. There are political reasons due to which I am leaving BJP and joining Congress".
"Reasons are many. I am a backward man, particularly a village man. The philosophy of village and backward class, schedule class, and minorities live together, haves and have nots live together. This is a philosophy of the country, secular ideology but the BJP is against to it," he added when asked to elaborate on his reasons for leaving BJP.
"Definitely Congress is going to win (in the upcoming Karnataka election), that is not the reason to join it," he remarked.
The Congress on Thursday released its sixth and final list of five candidates for the impending Karnataka assembly elections after the party replaced Mohammed Yousuf Savanur as its candidate from the Shiggaon constituency in Karnataka, currently under Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai, and fielded Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan instead from there on Wednesday.
In the final list, Mohammed Shalem was fielded from Raichur, BV Rajeev Gowda from Sidlaghatta, S Anand Kumar from C V Raman Nagar (SC), HP Sridhar Gowda from Arkalgud, and Inayath Ali from Mangalore City North.
Whether H Vishwanath will be accommodated as a Congress candidate remains to be seen.
The last date for filing nominations is today (April 20).
The assembly polls in the state held by BJP will take place on May 10 and the results will be announced on May 13.
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