After announcing that he would quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not giving him an election ticket, former Deputy CM Laxman Savadi is expected to join Congress ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. Savadi is travelling to Bengaluru with Congress MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar’s brother Channaraj Hattiholi on Friday, April 14, and an announcement on his decision is expected soon. He met with Congress leaders including KPCC chief DK Shivakumar, former CM Siddaramaiah and Randeep Singh Surjewala. Savadi had announced on Thursday that he would resign from his post as MLC and the party.
Savadi was left disappointed when the BJP’s first list of candidates left out his name, while the party chose to field sitting MLA Mahesh Kumathalli, who recently joined the party from Congress. Soon after he announced that he would quit the party, tens of thousands of his supporters took out a massive rally in Athani, Savadi’s home base. They expressed disappointment with the BJP for their “unfair” treatment of Savadi, a three-time MLA from Athani. Kumathalli is a loyalist of BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi, who represents the Gokak constituency.
In 2018, Savadi's winning streak was broken by Mahesh Kumathalli, then a Congress leader. However, he defected to BJP in 2019 in what is popularly known as ‘Operation Lotus’. Savadi was miffed when the first list of the BJP’s candidates left his name out, as he had been campaigning for a while, urging the party high command to give him the ticket. Expressing his disappointment with the BJP’s decision, Savadi said that despite Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s word, he was denied the Athani ticket. He added that he would join a party that allowed him to develop Athani and that he would even contest independently if the Congress or JD(S) would not take him.