Talks fail for Kunigal seat, ex-MP quits Congress ahead of Assembly polls in Mysuru

BENGALURU: In a major jolt to Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls in the old Mysuru region, senior Congress leader and former Lok Sabha member from Tumakuru SP Muddahanume Gowda has decided to quit the party.

He met KPCC president DK Shivakumar and leader of opposition Siddaramaiah at their residences and conveyed his decision.

He is likely to join BJP and contest from the Kunigal Assembly seat, strengthening the saffron party base in the region. Political analysts, however, said the move could eventually benefit JDS.

“It will directly affect the chances of Congress MLA Dr Ranganath in Kunigal,” they added. Gowda tried to negotiate for the Kunigal seat, but talks failed with both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah. They told him that incumbent MLA Dr Ranganath cannot be denied a ticket in the 2023 polls.

“I asked the leaders to relieve me from the party, and conveyed my decision to former DCM Dr G Parameshwara over the phone. I feel let down. I was also denied a ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls despite being a sitting MP. Later, neither any leader nor the party tried to compensate me with a Rajya Sabha nomination or an MLC post,” he told TNIE.

There will be no change in his decision, said the two-time MLA and president of the Tumakuru District Congress for over a decade. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he had to sacrifice his ticket as former PM HD Deve Gowda was the Congress-JDS alliance candidate who lost to BJP’s GS Basavaraju.