Bangalore, March 28 (IANS) Outraged by his ouster within hours of joining the BJP recently, a defiant Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik Friday said he was contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Bangalore South and Dharwad constituencies in Karnataka.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Ananth Kumar and Prahlad Joshi are in the fray in Bangalore South and Dharwad.
"I am contesting from both the seats as an Independent to defeat Kumar and Joshi as they humiliated not only me, but also betrayed thousands of our activists. Though there is tremendous pressure on me to withdraw from BJP and RSS leaders, I will not and will fight both of them," Muthalik told IANS here Friday.
The returning officers in both constituencies accepted Muthalik's nomination papers Thursday.
Karnataka's 28 parliamentary constituencies will see single phase polling April 17.
BJP general secretary and five-time MP Ananth Kumar is contesting from Bangalore South for the sixth time, where the Congress has fielded Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Nina P. Nayak.
"I hold Kumar responsible for my quick exit from the BJP, as he forced the central leadership to throw me out soon after I was admitted by Joshi and other leaders, including former chief minister Jagdish Shettar and former state unit president K. Eshwarappa at Hubli March 23," Muthalik said.
He said he had decided to contest to ensure the victory of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
"As Kumar dashed hopes of thousands of our activists and people across the state, I am contesting in his constituency to expose his misdeeds and teach him a lesson. He has a grudge against me for the pub attack in Mangalore in January 2009, though I had no direct role in it and had disapproved it," Muthalik said.
On contesting from Dharwad, Muthalik said he had nothing personal against Joshi but was challenging him because he failed to retain his membership in the BJP.
"They (BJP) allowed B.R. Sriramulu to rejoin the party despite opposition from their senior leader like Sushma Swaraj and threw me out without reason though I had joined the party unconditionally. Why this double standard?" he said.
Positivity rate crosses 19% in 2 states of the country: 16,281 new corona patients found; 13 lakh people got booster dose as soon as it became free
Corona cases are increasing continuously in the country. On the previous day, 16,281 new corona patients appeared and 28 patients died. The news of relief is that the number of patients recovering
'Where was it said that we will mix it in the soil' BJP gadgad from the encounter of Usman who was involved in Umesh Pal murder case
Another shooter involved in the Umesh Pal murder case was killed by the police in an encounter on Monday morning. It is being told that his name was Vijay alias Usman. It was he who fired the first
Disillusioned with Congress or Gandhi's family: Why did Rahul Gandhi's core team disintegrate, where are the leaders from Congress today and what are they doing?
Between 2016 and 2021, Congress has suffered the most. Meanwhile, 170 MLAs from different states left Congress. Congress also lost the government of five states due to a change of defection of MLAs.
HC questions Centre, Delhi Police over fake arms, licences
New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday asked the Centre and Delhi Police to file their responses on a PIL that alleged the government failed to act against the mass scale use of
Budget 2021: How many new jobs will come from government announcements?
The stock market and many economists have described Nirmala Sitharaman's budget as encouraging in the era of the Covid epidemic.
Ukraine War: Putin had threatened to attack Britain before Ukraine, Boris Johnson said – threatened me on the phone
Boris Johnson's Claim on Putin Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made a big disclosure today. Johnson said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened to fire missiles at me before
MP NEWS: Congress leader Raja Patria arrested, said in the speech about the murder of PM Modi
Police have arrested Congress leader Raja Pateria who made objectionable remarks against PM Modi. Former Madhya Pradesh minister Raja Patria had made controversial remarks on PM in a meeting. A case
Rain In Delhi-Ncr: Torrential rains in Delhi-NCR, only water on the roads, all schools closed in Noida-Greno
It is raining heavily in Delhi-NCR. Due to the rain, there has been waterlogging in many places. People have got relief from the rain. However, people are facing a lot of problems due to the rain in
Uttarakhand: Poisonous gas leak in Rudrapur, 18 people unconscious so far, SDM also complains of vomiting
Gas Leak In Rudrapur: In the Rudrapur transit camp of Udhamsinghnagar district in Uttarakhand, a gas cylinder kept in a scrap warehouse leaked. Due to this, about 18 people have fainted so far. On
LIC IPO: The country's largest IPO will open for anchor investors today, know everything from price band to discount
The wait for the country's biggest IPO is about to end. LIC's IPO will open for investors on May 4. Earlier, it will be opened for anchor investors today i.e. on May 2. It is noteworthy that out of
