Who is Laxman Savadi, the former Karnataka deputy CM who quit BJP and is set to join Congress?

Savadi, currently a BJP MLC, is a three-time MLA from Athani but lost in the 2018 elections to Kumathalli (then in the Congress).

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: April 14, 2023 01:49 PM IST

2 min read

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Former Karnataka deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi (Facebook)

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Days after being denied ticket by the BJP, former Karnataka deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi met senior Congress leaders, including its state unit president D K Shivakumar and LoP Siddaramaiah, in Bengaluru on Friday. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Shivakumar said that Savadi will officially join the grand old party on Friday evening.

Savadi, currently a BJP MLC, is a three-time MLA from Athani but lost in the 2018 elections to Kumathalli (then in the Congress).

Kumathalli was among the group of defectors who helped the BJP to bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition and form its government under the leadership of B S Yediyurappa in 2019.

A strong figure in the Karnataka unit of the saffron party, Savadi served as the eighth deputy chief minister of the state and Minister of Transport of Karnataka from 2019 to 2021 in the Fourth BS Yediyurappa ministry.

In 2012, Savadi got caught in the middle of a controversy after a video emerged showing him and his then colleague C C Patil allegedly watching pornographic clips on a mobile phone in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Savadi resigned as a minister soon after the incident snowballed into a major political controversy.

(With inputs from PTI)

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