Bengaluru: Former Mandya MP L.R. Shivarame Gowda joined the BJP yesterday. He has represented Nagamangala Constituency in the State Assembly earlier.

He joined BJP in the presence of saffron party National General Secretary C.T. Ravi, State Unit Chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and Ministers Dr. K. Sudhakar and K. Gopalaiah at the party office in Bengaluru.

A two-time MLA, Shivarame Gowda, who has been with both the JD(S) and Congress earlier, said the workers were getting ‘suffocated’ in both the parties in Mandya district. Earlier, he was expelled from JD(S) for anti-party activities.

He won in 1989 and 1994 as an independent candidate and was elected to Lok Sabha from Mandya seat in the 2018 by-poll.  Along with Shivarame Gowda, his son Chetan Gowda also joined the BJP. Chetan Gowda had contested unsuccessfully from Padmanabhanagar Assembly seat in Bengaluru on a Congress ticket.

It is said that Shivarame Gowda is the frontrunner for BJP ticket from Nagamangala in the ensuing Assembly polls. Nagamangala Assembly seat has been a stronghold of JD(S) and Congress and the seat has witnessed direct fight between the JD(S) and Congress nominees.

After joining BJP, Shivarame Gowda said that many people will join the BJP in the next few days as they want double-engine government in Karnataka.

“A lot of people are coming from JD(S). People of Karnataka are clever voters and the double-engine government will work better. BJP is a cadre-based party. Forget Siddharamaiah, D.K. Shivakumar, and H.D. Kumaraswamy. In the next election, the BJP will get a majority and it will form the government,”  Shivarame Gowda said.

When asked whether other political leaders will join the BJP, the former MP said, “In the next 10 days, a lot of people will come to join the BJP because they want double-engine government.”