K.P. Nanjundi, who had resigned from the Legislative Council membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party has joined the Congress. Nanjundi tendered his resignation letter to Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti in Hubballi on Tuesday.On a day the open public campaigning for the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka ends and the silent period until the polling on Saturday is set to begin, the prominent backward class leader K P Nanjundi, joined the party along with his followers in the KPCC office today. KP Nanjundi joined the Congress in the presence of KPCC president DK Shivakumar and State Congress in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala in a program held at the KPCC office in Bengaluru.
Speaking on the occasion, State Congress in-charge Surjewala said that when the constitution of India is under attack, we all have to fight together. Reservations are being destroyed systematically. He said that some BJP leaders are openly saying that they are going to change the constitution. Already in the central government, officials belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are not becoming government secretaries. High positions including joint secretaries are not being given to these communities. There is only one official from the OBC community in the central government in the post of secretary. He questioned how the protection of the backward society is possible in such a situation. He said that the income limit of backward classes has not been revised and increased. 30 lakh posts are vacant in the range, out of which 8 lakh posts should belong to backward classes. Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar praised him, stating, “BJP leader K P Nanjundi, who belongs to the Backward Class community of Vishwakarma, has joined the Congress party unconditionally. It is a homecoming for KP Nanjundi as he was earlier in the Congress party. He is considered as the most popular Backward Class community leader. He is a great asset. We also wanted to keep him, but he slipped out of us. It is our fortune that he has come back.”
Nanjundi said, “I was in the Congress party for 15 years and had joined the BJP due to personal reasons. I don’t have any freedom, which I enjoyed when I was in Congress. BJP made me MLC and sidelined me. My objective was to serve my community and the people and not remain as an MLC. So I have returned to Congress.”Nanjundi said, “I had told Priyanka Gandhi about the suffering of lakhs of depositors of Guru Raghavendra Cooperative Bank. Over 3 lakh depositors have lost their life’s earnings and over 200 persons have committed suicide. I fought for the cause of the helpless depositors when I was in BJP, which had promised to entrust the investigation to the CBI. But the BJP did nothing. The investigation must be entrusted to the CBI as big and influential BJP leaders are involved. The Congress party has promised to hand over the case to the CBI,” Nanjundi said.