Hubballi: The JD(S) party general secretary Abdul Azeem and former Haliyal MLA Sunil Hegde are set to join the BJP.
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In a blow to JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda, Azeem has tendered his resignation along with 25 of his followers and announced that he would be joining BJP on November 5, while Hegde will formally join the saffron party on November 6.
Azeem, who joined JD(S) after taking voluntary retirement from police service, unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections. He was later made MLC and also a party office bearer.
This is not the first time Azeem has quit JD(S). When the party refused to re-nominate him to the Council, he had quit the party and joined Congress. However, he returned within a few months.
For the last few months, Azeem was cut off with the leadership including his mentor Deve Gowda and had written an open letter to Gowda saying that unilateral decisions were being taken without consulting the Parliamentary Board.
Sources said that neither Gowda, nor his son Kumaraswamy made any attempt to stop Azeem from quitting .
With two other minority community leaders B.Z. Zameer Ahamed Khan and Iqbal Ansari distancing themselves from party affairs, the party is facing a crisis of sorts.
