Ex-Tumakuru MP Muddahanumegowda returns to Cong ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Bengaluru: Former Member of Parliament from Tumakuru S P Muddahanumegowda on Thursday returned to the Congress party, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls later this year.

He had quit Congress and had jumped ship to the BJP in 2022, ahead of the Assembly polls in 2023.

The senior leader was admitted into the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, party's state unit President and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Ministers G Parameshwara and K N Rajanna, and several party leaders and workers.

He is expected to be the party's candidate from Tumakuru for the Lok Sabha polls, according to Congress sources.

Addressing party workers and supporters after joining the Congress, Muddahanumegowda said though defection is a well-accepted phenomenon today for both political parties and people, he had defected to the BJP with a lot of pain, only to contest the election. His actions had hurt his followers, party workers and leaders, and he would apologise to them, he added.

Stating that he had been district Congress president and MLA from the party for 10 years and MP for five years, he said he has come back to the party that gave him a political identity, realising his mistake.

"I know that not much time is left for me in active politics, but I wanted to serve my mother party during the remaining period of my political life," he said, thanking the leadership and assuring them that he would serve the party honestly.

Muddahanumegowda was the only Congress sitting MP to be denied a ticket for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, as the party had ceded the Tumakuru seat to its then alliance partner in the state, the JD(S).

JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was the joint nominee of Congress-JD(S) alliance from Tumakuru then.

An angry Muddahanumegowda had filed his papers both as a party candidate and as an independent, but pulled out of the contest after being persuaded by the party leadership.

Muddahanumegowda had expressed his intention to contest the 2023 assembly polls from Kunigal seat, which he had represented twice from Congress earlier, but was denied that ticket as well.

Shivakumar said Muddahanumegowda has joined the party without any preconditions, and neither has the Congress assured him anything.

"Whoever is given the ticket, everyone will have to work for the victory of the party's candidate. He has been taken into the party with the consent of all Congress leaders from the district," he said.

Siddaramaiah said Muddahanumegowda, originally a Congressman, has returned to the party realising his mistake.

He said the Lok Sabha candidate from Tumakuru will de dcided based on the opinion of local leaders.

"There is favourable atmosphere in Tumakuru for Congress to win, and similar is the atmosphere in the entire country as our government has walked the talk by implementing five guarantees," he said, as he called on partymen to work unitedly, setting aside their differences.