The Janata Dal-Secular lost another seasoned leader. Senior leader P G R Scindia has quit the party and is joining the Bahujan Samaj Party, which is looking to set foot in Karnataka.
Scindia said he will join the BSP at the convention to be held on Sunday at the Palace Grounds in Bangalore. The convention will be presided over by BSP chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
Scindia's departure may not be a significant loss to the JD-S as he had severed ties with the Gowda clan almost two years back. Scindia had not officially quit the party. As a senior JD-S leader put it, "Scindia's body has left the party today, but his heart and soul had departed long back."
Scindia said that he was pained by this decision to leave the JD-S, a party for which he had worked relentlessly for over a decade. He had fallen out with the party chief H D Deve Gowda while questioning his dictatorial style of functioning.
He said that the ideology of the BSP suited him. He said that the BSP will not differentiate on the basis of caste and hence this was ideal for him.