Mysuru: In a setback for the state Congress, its senior party leader C.H. Vijayshankar confirmed here on Monday that he was joining the BJP on Tuesday for “his survival in politics and public life" since being "ignored" by the Congress after his defeat in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to the media in Mysuru, the two term Mysuru- Kodagu MP said he had taken the decision under pressure from his fans and supporters in the party.
“The BJP also invited me pointing out that I was with the party in the past and I should return to it,” he added.
Justifying his decision, he said while the BJP had given him everything he wanted, the Congress didn't give him any party position. "And after I lost the Lok Sabha elections, nobody spoke to me. I sat at home for six months. When I am in public life, I cannot sit at home like this. I want to continue to be in public life in future too. That is why I am joining the BJP again,” he said.
Making it clear that he had nothing against former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, Mr Vijayshankar said, “Siddaramaiah has not betrayed me. In fact, he got me the Lok Sabha ticket for which I am grateful to him. There have been debates on native and migrant Congressmen in the party. Siddaramaiah was Chief Minister for five years and still some are calling him a migrant and there was much discussion about making him leader of the opposition. If this is his state, what about us? Such a system does not exist in the BJP.”
The former MP, who helped the BJP make in-roads into the Congress bastion of Mysuru -Kodagu in the 1998 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections, quit the party and joined the Congress in November 2017. He lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate from Mysuru-Kodagu.
