Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party ( KPJP) is an Indian

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

based in

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

History

Karnataka Pragnyavanta Janata Paksha was founded by Puthurina Muthu D. Mahesh Gowda. He started the party in January 2015, applied for official registration on 19January 2016 and publicly announced it on 12August 2017 under the 'Prajakeeya' campaign slogan. The party's official launch was on 31October 2017 by veteran

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

actor

Upendra Rao Upendra Rao (known mononymously as Upendra; born 18 September 1968) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and politician who works primarily in Kannada cinema. Upendra has also worked in Telugu films . He started his film care ...

. The party believes in skill-driven leadership and politics with people being central. The official symbol of the party was announced on 9December 2017 as the auto-rickshaw. The party intends to contest the upcoming elections for the Karnataka Legistaltive Assembly in 2018 and released its manifesto at the end of January 2018. On 6March Upendra Rao announced that he had resigned from the party after a misunderstanding between him and D. Mahesh Gowda. In the

2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election The 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election was held on 12 May 2018 in 222 constituencies to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The election was postponed in Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, following the death of the MLA B. N. Vijaya ...

, R Shankar from Ranebennur constituency was elected. He supports the Congress-JD(S) alliance in the state. On May 17, 2018, Shankar had changed his mind by supporting the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

instead of the

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

. During the Ongoing Karnataka Resignation crises, Shanker switched back to NDA on July 8, 2019 .

References

{{Indian political parties Political parties in Karnataka Political parties established in 2017 2017 establishments in Karnataka