Setback for Congress continues; former minister who praised Modi joins BJP, party workers shocked

BENGALURU: The Congress is entangled in a crisis of resignation of leaders due to poor experience in the party and lack of seats following its pathetic performance in various elections in the country. The latest is the resignation of former Karnataka minister and senior Congress leader Pramod Madhwaraj. Pramod, who resigned from the party and joined the BJP, was directly inducted into the party by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Along with Pramod, some other prominent leaders of the Congress in the state also joined the party.

Madhwaraj, a native of Udupi, was a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government. Madhwaraj is a leader who garnered attention by praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for awarding the Padma Vibhushan posthumously to Vishwesha Tirtharu Swamy, the head of Uduppi Pegawara.

In his resignation letter to KPCC chief D K Sivakumar, Pramod said that he was not accepting the post of vice president of the party and was resigning from the Congress primary membership. His resignation letter said that he had told the senior leaders that he had been having a bad experience with the Udupi District Congress for the last three years and that it was a suffocating experience for him in the party. However, Madhwaraj complained that his concerns have not been resolved.

Jyotiraditya Sindhya, who left the Congress in 2020, is now the union minister. Capt Amarinder Singh, a senior party leader, has quit the Congress after being ousted as Punjab Chief Minister. Prema Khandu who left the Congress and joined the BJP in 2016 is now the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. Senior Congress leader P C Chacko left the Congress and joined the NCP. He is presently the chief of the NCP Kerala unit. Former Goa Chief Minister Lucio Falerio had joined the Trinamool Congress. With elections looming in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi is working hard to retain party leader and Patel community leader Hardik Patel in the party.