Mohan Padil, former BJP councillor from Padil, where the July 28 home stay attack occurred, joined the Janata Dal (Secular) on Thursday.
At a function held at the party office in Falnir, Mr. Padil said that local BJP legislators had not supported the cause of the development of roads in his area. He said that the party leaders instructed him to not to speak against an influential person who had been accused of grabbing the land belonging to the Mangalore Division of National Highways at Padil. The BJP had failed to address the problems of people. These were some reasons that had forced him to quit the BJP, he said. Mr. Padil was one of the people who gathered at the home stay on July 28 in support of the attack by Hindu Jagaran Vedike activists. The group gathered at the venue within moments of the attack and created a commotion. The police took Mr. Padil into custody and released him on the night of July 28.
