BJP MLA Shivaram Hebbar’s son joins Congress

Disgruntled BJP MLA from Yellapur Shivaram Hebbar’s son Vivek Hebbar, along with his supporters including several GP members and presidents, jumped the ship to the Congress at a party meeting at Banavasi on Thursday.

KPCC vice president Ivan D’Souza and DCC president Sainath Gaonkar welcomed Vivek Hebbar and his supporters to the party by giving them the party flag.

“We felt suffocated in the BJP. Hence, we all returned to our mother party Congress. We will work for the party and strengthen it in the district. Many supporters of the MLA will join the Congress in phases in the next few days,” Vivek Hebbar told reporters.

The Yellapur BJP MLA has distanced himself from the party ever since he managed to scrape through the Assembly elections in May 2023. Hebbar had alleged that a section of his party (BJP) workers and office-bearers tried to defeat him in the Assembly elections.

Despite repeated complaints to the party leadership, no action was initiated against the workers, he had alleged.

Hebbar was among 17 Congress-JD(S) legislators, who had quit from their parties, leading to the collapse of the then H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in July 2019.

Hebbar had subsequently won the bypoll on a BJP ticket and served as a minister in the then government of the saffron party.