Karnataka - Bangalore

Madhu Made Gowda joins BJP

BANGALORE: Congress rebel candidate Madhu Made Gowda joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday. He will contest the Assembly elections as the BJP candidate from Maddur, the hometown of senior Congress leader S.M. Krishna.

Mr. Made Gowda said he would file his nomination papers on Wednesday afternoon.

Congress leader M.S. Atmananda, who earlier indicated that he was thinking of joining the BJP, is now said to have changed his mind. The BJP is learnt to have decided to field some more Congress rebel leaders from Mandya district if they come into its fold. While a meeting to discuss this was held till late on Tuesday night, the party is said to have kept its options open till Wednesday, the last day for filing nomination papers for the first phase of the elections.

The BJP MP for Bellary, Karunakara Reddy, on Tuesday alleged that party candidates in the district were facing threats to their lives from Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) leaders. He has urged the Chief Electoral Officer M.N. Vidyashankar to provide armed security personnel to protect the party candidates.

In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Reddy demanded the transfer of the district Superintendent of Police Amrut Pal, accusing him of being loyal to the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Referring to the attack on Congress candidate Anil Lad’s house in Bellary in which some cars were set on fire, he alleged that Mr. Lad had stage-managed the show to defame the BJP. Mr. Lad was trying to gain public sympathy, he alleged.

Protests by disappointed BJP ticket aspirants took an ugly turn on Tuesday, with angry protesters breaking the glass pane of a door of the party’s new election office in Bangalore.

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