Journalist-turned-Congresss leader Tejaswini Gowda joined the Bharatiya Janata Party here on Wednesday in the presence of the party’s State president Pralhad Joshi.
She shot to fame in 2004 after defeating the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in the then Kanakapura Lok Sabha constituency (which has been renamed Bangalore Rural after delimitation).
However, her association with influential Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar, who hails from Kanakapura, ran into rough weather later.
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The Congress has fielded Mr. Shivakumar’s brother D. K. Suresh, who got elected to the Lok Sabha in 2013 byelection, in Bangalore Rural.
Speaking to presspersons, Ms. Gowda alleged that there was a huge gap between the claims and actions of the Congress. She was critical of the Congress government in the State and alleged that there were several scams after the party came to power. She accused the Congress government of indulging in only populist programmes rather than trying to bring about concrete changes.
“I did not want to waste my time in the Congress any more. Hence I have joined the BJP,” she said.
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On why she chose the BJP in particular, she said: “I’m a person with a nationalistic spirit and hence I chose the national party. Also, it is the only party which can presently offer a decisive leadership to the country.”
She also sang praises of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Replying to queries, she maintained that she had not quit the Congress just because it refused her ticket to contest the election.
'Not after power’“If I was really after power, I would not have quit the Congress as it has come to power in the State now. In fact, I worked for the Congress when it was in the Opposition and I have quit the party when it has come to power,” she said.
She said she had not sought ticket from the BJP to contest the election.