In a significant political development, five-time Karnataka MLA and former BJP minister CP Yogeshwar formally joined the Congress party on Wednesday, October 23. The decision was announced after Yogeshwar met with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at his official residence on Wednesday. Congress sources confirmed that Yogeshwar will be the candidate for the Channapatna bye-polls scheduled for November 13.

 Meanwhile, Nisha Yogeshwar, the daughter of the former Minister has been coming out with allegations against Yogeshwar, accusing him of playing a role in “destroying her career”. Nisha also met Deputy CM DK Shivakumar recently and has been uploading videos on her social media pages. Yogeshwar and his wife had obtained a gag order a few months ago stopping media houses from reporting on her allegations. When asked about her recent allegations, a Congress source said that the feud between Yogeshwar and his daughter from his first marriage has been going on for a while and that was not a concern for the party. “It is a personal problem,” the source said. 

Yogeshwar formally joined the Congress party at the party headquarters in Bengaluru in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. Before that, he held a meeting with CM Siddaramaiah in the presence of Deputy CM Shivakumar, Minister Zameer Ahmad Khan, Minister for Kannada and Culture Shivaraj Tangadagi, former Congress MP D.K. Suresh and others.

Yogeshwar had refused to contest under the JD(S) symbol as an NDA candidate and had given time to the BJP till Tuesday evening to declare him as the candidate from the Channapatna constituency.

Though the BJP was willing to field him, JD(S) leaders and Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who represented the seat, could not come to a consensus. Yogeshwar had contested against Kumaraswamy on a BJP ticket in the 2023 Assembly polls and lost the election.