Congress leader A Manju joins BJP

Hassan: Former minister and Congress leader A Manju on Sunday, March 17 evening rejoined the BJP at its Hassan party office.

BJP’s Hassan MLA Preetham Gowda welcomed Manju into party’s fold by offering him a shawl while a miffed district BJP president Yoga Ramesh skipped the event, informed sources.

Following the event BJP claiming that Yoga Ramesh had no differences over Manju rejoining the party said that as Yoga Ramesh was in Bengaluru he could not attend the function at the party office. 

It may be recalled that Manju was earlier elected as MLA on a BJP ticket in 1999 from Arakalgudu assembly segment in Hassan and joined the Congress in 2004. He lost the 2004 election and was re-elected on a Congress ticket in 2008 and 2013. He lost the 2018 election to the JD(S) candidate.

Manju had been a vocal critic of Gowda and often expressed his displeasure in respecting the Congress-JD(S) coalition.