Senior leader and Supreme Court advocate Brijesh Kalappa resigned from primary membership of the Congress on Wednesday. Kalappa, who joined the Congress in 1997, said that the decision stemmed from a "lack of energy and enthusiasm" towards the party.
"At the outset I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to you for the several opportunities you provided to me. If I am recognised as a familiar face in all parts of this extraordinarily large nation – it is indeed thanks to your patronage," said Kalappa's resignation letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, shared on Facebook.
"It is again thanks to your blessings that I was appointed as legal advisor to Government of Karnataka with rank of minister," the post read.
Kalappa represented the Congress in debates in English, Hindi, and Kannada for almost a decade and has been a part of almost 6,500 TV debates.
"Even at the worst of times for the party in the aftermath of 2014 and 2019 debacles, I have never felt enervated and lacking in energy and enthusiasm. But, in the recent past I have been finding myself lacking in passion, while my own performance has been listless and perfunctory," Kalappa's resignation letter read.
Kalappa aspired to receive a party ticket in his native Kodagu district for the Virajpet or Madikeri Assembly constituencies in Karnataka. However, he was denied a ticket to the 2018 Assembly polls, being passed over for former state public prosecutor HS Chandramouli.
"It is under these circumstances that I am left with little option but to resign from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress and to end an association that began in 1997," he wrote to Sonia Gandhi.
Previously, popular Kannada actor and former member of the State Legislative Council Mukhyamantri Chandru resigned from primary membership of the party after he was denied a nomination to the Legislative Council.
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