In another jolt to the Congress, KC Ramamurthy, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka and former IPS officer is all set to join rival party BJP ahead of the Assembly byepolls. Ramamurthy confirmed the development to TNM.

According to reports, his resignation from the Upper house of the Parliament has been accepted by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu who is the presiding officer of the Rajya Sabha.

Ramamurthy, however, declined to comment on the exact reason which led to his decision.

When asked if he is aspiring to contest in the upcoming Assembly bye-polls, he said, “That is a decision to be taken by the state BJP unit and the CM. But I don’t think so.”

Recently, in the Rajya Sabha, he had asked the Centre to set up a coastguard academy in Mangaluru.

Ramamurthy has been a Rajya Sabha MP for the grand old party since June 2009. He had also been a member of the Standing Committee of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Law and Justice. He had retired from the IPS voluntarily in 2007 when he was serving as the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic & Security).

Other than politics, he is also the Chairman of the CMR Jnanadhara Trust and has been previously associated with the Bangalore University as its registrar. The CMR Jnanadhara Trust runs a University that has engineering and degree colleges, schools and also a Montessori. 

Ramamurthy was an aspirant for Lok Sabha elections during the 2014 polls and was also rumoured to be joining the JD(S) after he failed to secure a ticket.  

According to a 2010 Deccan Herald report ,he was accused of cheating and fabricating documents in connection with a Rs 300 crore land grabbing case. He'd been booked for Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 474 (using forged document as real) of the Indian Penal Code.