C.P. Yogehswar, who was elected on the Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket in Assembly elections in 2013 and joined the Congress during Lok Sabha polls in 2014, has now planned to quit the Congress.
The MLA is expected to join the Janata Dal (S). He is currently co-opted member of the Congress in the Assembly.
Mr. Yogeshwar will be the JD (S) candidate from the Channapatna constituency in Ramangaram district in the Assembly polls in 2018.
A few leaders of the Congress, including former MP and Minister Jayaprakash Hegde, former MLA Narendra Babu, have quit the party and joined the BJP. More Congress leaders are expected to join the BJP and JD (S) over the next few months.
Sources in the Congress said the MLA would quit the party and he had not been participating in the party functions for a long time now.
Mr. Yogeshwar, who began his political career with the Congress, quit the party in 2008 and joined the BJP after B.S. Yeddyurappa became the Chief Minister. One of the early catches of the BJP’s widely criticised ‘Operation Lotus’, Mr. Yogeshwar contested the by-election on a BJP ticket and got elected. He was rewarded with a Cabinet berth.
He quit the BJP on the eve of the Assembly elections in 2013 and joined the SP. Mr. Yogeshwar, who is also a film actor, contested from the SP and got re-elected from the Channapatna Assembly constituency. On the eve of Lok Sabha elections in 2014, he joined the Congress.
