Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Union Minister S.M. Krishna has put off his plan of of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party following the death of his sister.
The 84-year-old leader, who quit the Congress with which he had associated himself for nearly 50 years on January 28, had already reached New Delhi on Tuesday as he was scheduled to join the BJP on Wednesday.
However, his sister Sunitha died on Tuesday night following which he has decided to return to Bengaluru immediately.
Sources close to Mr. Krishna told The Hindu that he was now most likely to join the Party sometime next week. However, the exact date of joining was yet to be decided, they noted.
As per the earlier plan, Mr. Krishna was supposed to hold consultations with BJP National president Amit Shah on Tuesday. However, he could not meet Mr. Shah as the latter returned to the national capital late on Tuesday night since he had to attend Manohar Parrikar’s swearing-in as Chief Minister of Goa.
Similarly, there was uncertainty about Mr. Krishna’s party joining programme on Wednesday too as Mr. Shah is scheduled to attend the BJP government’s installation programme in Manipur.
Following this, the BJP Karnataka unit leaders had on Tuesday night announced that Mr. Krishna would join the party either on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning depending upon Mr. Shah’s schedule. However, the programme has now been put off following the death of Mr. Krishna’s sister.
