Bengaluru: The former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Poornima Srinivas is all set to join the Congress party on October 20 and a confirmation of her joining the Congress came after she met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar who is also the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee in Bengaluru on Sunday. Poornima served as MLA of Hiriyur assembly seat in Chitradurga from 2018 to 2023.
Earlier before the Assembly election 2023, there were speculations that Poornima would join the Congress party and contest the Assembly election. She remained with the BJP and contested the Hiriyur assembly seat as a BJP nominee and lost to Congress nominee D. Sudhakar who is now the Minister for Planning in Siddaramaiah ministry.
Sources said that Poornima was a Ministerial aspirant and was unhappy after he failed to make it into the Ministry in the previous BJP government which might have led her to quit BJP to join the Congress party.
However, Hiriyur Taluk BJP president Vishwanath told Deccan Chronicle on Monday suspected that there was no reason for her to quit BJP since the party leaders in Hiriyur had huge respect for her nor any differences with local leaders for Poornima to switch loyalties.
“She might have had a personal agenda such as a desire for power in the ruling party,” he said for her to take a decision to quit BJP. He also denied rifts with local leaders that would make her quit BJP and stated that all party leaders and workers had worked hard for her unitedly in the election held in May.
Sources said Poornima was in constant touch with the Congress leaders before she took a decision to join the Congress party. On Monday efforts to contact Poornima went futile since she did not respond to the repeated calls.
Poornima Srinivas is the daughter of former minister and Congress leader A. Krishnappa. A backward class leader Krishnappa served the Congress party for about 30 years before he shifted his loyalties to the Janata Dal Secular (JDS).
Earlier, Poornima’s father A. Krishnappa unsuccessfully contested the Hiriyur assembly seat in the 2013 election. He was defeated by Congress nominee D. Sudhakar. In the 2018 election, Krishnappa's daughter Poornima defeated Congress nominee D. Sudhakar to enter the Assembly.
