Hours after resigning from Congress, former MLA Pramod Madhwaraj and other party leaders joined the BJP on Saturday. Madhwaraj joined the party in the presence of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday.
Madhwaraj resigned from his position in the Congress party earlier that day. He had addressed his resignation letter to KPCC president DK Shivakumar. The letter stated, "I have decided not to accept the post of vice-presidentship of KPCC and also to tender my resignation from the primary membership of the Congress party."
Former MLC Sandesh Nagaraj, former state minister Varthur Prakash, former party MP KB Krishnamurthy, former MLA Manjunath Gowda, former IRS officer Lakshmi Ashwingowda, and Congress leader from Mandya Ashok Jayaram are among the other senior Congress leaders who joined the BJP.
The former minister wrote, "for the last three years the situation in the Udupi district Congress party has been a bad experience for me thus leading to political suffocation and the facts of which have been brought to your kind notice and informed to other party leaders by me."
"I have observed that no worthwhile steps have been taken by the party to redress my grievances regarding the prevailing situation in the Udupi district Congress party," Madhwaraj wrote.
Previously Madhwaraj has said that the 'trend' of determining Padma awardees has changed since the BJP government came to power. Last year he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for honouring Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji with Padma Vibhushan posthumously.
Madhwaraj's decision to leave Congress has left a vacuum in the party's leadership in Udupi.
