Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady (MS)

Beltangady, May 2: Former minister K Gangadhar Gowda will join Congress party on Wednesday, May 2, in a function that is organized near Ambedkar Bhavan here at 2.30 pm.

The senior politician of Beltangady K Gangadhar Gowda is a popular leader who was two time MLA and also a minister. He was elected as MLA in 1978 and held the position of minister of sports and youth services in 1980. During his tenure as minister, he strived to improve conditions of stadiums in taluk, district and in state. He was also instrumental in drawing the attention of the then government to give recognition to the popular sports of the coastal region 'Kambala'.

Gangadhar Gowda also started giving monthly pension to whip-lashing farmers who take part in the Kambala sport, founded Doordarshan in the state of Karnataka, distributed title deeds to poor people under land reform and developed roads, schools and Anganwady.

He was active in BJP for the past few years. In the 2013 Karnataka assembly elections, Gangadhar Gowda's son, Ranjan G Gowda contested on BJP ticket and got 59,000 votes, which is highest in the history of BJP in Beltangady.

Gangadhar Gowda worked hard for BJP in Beltangady area. But he was sidelined in teh recent past. Deeply saddened by this, he decided after holding a discussion with scores of his supporters to join and support Congress in the coming elections.

Gangadhar Gowda, who has vowed to bring back Congress to power will be joining Congress party formally in the presence of D K Shivakumar, minister of energy Oommen Chandy, former chief minister of Kerala, K Harish Kumar, president, district Congress committee, B Ramanath Rai, district-in-charge minister, K Vasantha Bangera, sitting MLA and Congress candidate for the upcoming elections and unit presidents of Congress of several taluks and numerous activists of Congress party.