Udupi : Pramod Madhwaraj, former Minister, said on Friday that he was still in the Congress and would campaign for the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate in the bypoll for Manjeshwar Assembly Constituency in Kerala to be held on October 21.

Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Madhwaraj said that he had contested from the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha seat as the joint candidate of the Congress – Janata Dal (Secular) alliance in the 2019 polls after getting the nod from the Congress leaders.

He had to take up the membership of the JD(S) for technical reasons to fight on the party’s ticket. Though he was the JD(S) candidate, the campaigning was handled by the Congress, he said.

The shawl that he sported during the elections had symbols of both the Congress and the JD(S). He had resigned from the JD(S) in September this year. There was no question of his rejoining the Congress as he was always with the party, he said.

“I never left the Congress. Neither did the Congress expel me. I am physically and mentally in the Congress. Everyone knows it. It is for the Congress party to announce formally announce that I am in it. But the party has asked me to campaign for the UDF candidate in Manjeshwar seat. Hence, I presume the problems with regard to my being in the Congress are solved,” he said.

He had received telephone calls from the AICC secretary P.C. Vishunadh and KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao asking him to assist in campaigning in Manjeshwar.