Another JD(S) MLA Sivalinge Gowda From Arsikere Constituency Resigns In Karnataka, Set To Join Congress

Gowda submitted his resignation letter to speaker Vishweshwar Hegde in Shirasi with other party leaders present on the occasion. He resigned with over 300 of his supporters gathered in his support.

Another Janata Dal (Secular) MLA K M Sivalinge Gowda resigned from his Arsikere constituency in Karnataka on Sunday to join the Congress party ahead of the state assembly polls to be held on May 10 this year, reported news agency ANI.

Gowda submitted his resignation letter to speaker Vishweshwar Hegde in Shirasi with other party leaders present on the occasion. He resigned from JD(S) with over 300 of his supporters gathered outside the speaker's office.

Notably, he had been maintaining some distance from the party for some time in the past. He is likely to be fielded as Arsikere constituency candidate in the upcoming polls on a Congress ticket.

Meanwhile, he is not the only one from JD(S) to say goodbye to the party in the last few weeks. For instance, Janata Dal (Secular) MLA SR Srinivas alias Gubbi Srinivas on March 27  also resigned from the party and his post as a legislator in the Karnataka Assembly, PTI reported.

He later joined the Congress party on March 30. Srinivas, MLA from the Gubbi seat, submitted his resignation to the Karnataka Assembly Speaker.

The JD(S) had expelled Srinivas from the party, accusing him of cross-voting in the June 2022 Rajya Sabha polls. The party claimed that it contributed to the defeat of its candidate D Kupendra Reddy.

The JD(S) had even moved a petition to have him, along with another MLA K Srinivas Gowda from Kolar, disqualified under the anti-defection law, news agency PTI reported.

"In October 2021, (HD) Kumaraswamy announced a JD(S) candidate from my seat even as I was still in the party. From that day, the distance between us widened. He had also made certain false allegations against me, like holding me responsible for Deve Gowda's defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Tumakuru. I had never done such anti-party activity and had honestly served the party," Srinivas said.

The former JD(S) leader, however, said he was quitting the party with a "lot of pain". He claimed that he was expelled from the party on false allegations last year.

Another JD(S) leader Arkalgud A T Ramaswamy also quit the party earlier on Friday and joined BJP in New Delhi Yesterday.