3 ex-BJP MPs from Karnataka join Cong

Three former BJP MPs who had defied the party whip during July 22,2008 trust vote joined the Congress on Tuesday. They included K T Sangliana,former MP from Bangalore North,Manorama Madhavraj,former MP from Udupi,and Manjunath Kunnur,former MP from Dharwad South.

Flanked by the Karnataka leaders at a press conference at the Congress headquarters,AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Prithviraj Chavan said the former MPs had pledged unflinching support to the Congress. The three had met Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier in the day. For Manjunath and Kunnur,it was like homecoming as they had quit the Congress to join the BJP in the past.

While Sangliana and Kunnur had defied the BJP whip and voted for the UPA Government in the trust vote,Madhavraj had abstained. Sangliana,former police commissioner of Bangalore who is a devout Christian hailing from Mizoram,had originally sought to contest the 2004 parliamentary election on a Congress ticket but was denied because of the presence of senior leader C K Jaffer Sharief.