Former Congress leader SM Krishna to join BJP this week: BS Yeddyurappa

Bengaluru: India’s former external affairs minister and former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna is set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) this week in New Delhi, a party official said on Monday.

“Krishna will join our party in New Delhi on 15 or 16 March after meeting party’s national president Amit Shah. He will also call Prime Minister Narendra Modi later,” a BJP official said on conditions of anonymity.

Krishna, 84, resigned from Congress on 29 January this year after 46 years of association with the Grand Old Party for “being sidelined by its leadership.”

“Krishna will leave for Delhi on Tuesday and meet Shah on Wednesday,” the official said.

BJP’s Bengaluru unit president and Lok Sabha lawmaker BS Yeddyurappa also told reporters at Mysore earlier in the day that Krishna was set to join the party.

“As the budget session of Parliament will resume from Tuesday, I will also be in Delhi to personally welcome Krishna into the party fold,” the former BJP chief minister of the state said.

Union Ministers from Karnataka, DV Sadananda Gowda and Anantha Kumar, will also be present on the occasion.

Ever since leaving Congress, Krishna has been biding his time to join the BJP, but was told to wait till this week, as Shah and Modi were busy with Assembly elections in five states.

Yeddyurappa officially invited Krishna to join the party at the latter’s house on 6 March.

“With the BJP securing thumping majority in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and set to form governments in Goa and Manipur, Krishna thought it is the right time to join the BJP and strengthen the party in Karnataka, where Assembly election is due in next year,” added the official.