The former BJP MLC Mohan Limbikai with Congress leaders in Belagavi on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Mohan Limbikai, former MLC, joined the Congress after quitting the BJP, in Belagavi on Thursday.
Mr. Limbikai, senior advocate and Lingayat leader from Hubballi, is considered a close confidant of the former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and had served as his legal adviser.
Mr. Limbikai said he joined the Congress without any conditions and was willing to take on any responsibility that the party gave him in future. “I have been a disciplined soldier of the BJP for decades. But they failed to utilise my leadership qualities. I was known as a member of Mr. Yediyurappa’s inner circle. But I was pained by the behaviour of some BJP leaders and was unsatisfied with some ideologies of the BJP. I was deeply upset. Then, I decided to join the Congress,” he said.
AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, and KPCC working president Satish Jarkiholi were present when he joined the party at the Congress Bhavan in Belagavi.
Mr. Surjewala later tweeted that the party welcomed Mr. Limbikai wholeheartedly. “The Congress Family in #Karnataka is becoming bigger & bigger. The onward March of Congress carries on!” he said.