New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) Three parliamentarians from Karnataka, suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for supporting the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the 2008 trust vote in parliament, joined the Congress here Tuesday. They claimed they were feeling suffocated in the BJP. The parliamentarians - H.T. Sangliana (Bangalore North), Manjunath Khunnur (Dharwad South) and Manorama Madhwaraj (Udupi) - joined the Congress party at its headquarters in the presence of Congress general secretary Prithiviraj Chavan.

While Sangliana and Khunnur voted in favour of the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, Madhwaraj remained absent.

Sangliana, a retired police commissioner of Bangalore, told reporters: “We were feeling suffocated in the BJP. The Congress is the real secular party.”

The former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer had caused an upset when he defeated former minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Asked if more such MPs from other political parties who voted for the Congress-led government would join the party, Chavan said: “Wait and watch.”

The ruling alliance won the July 22 trust vote over the India-US nuclear deal.

Recalling that Kannur and Madhwaraj were originally in the Congress, Chavan said this was like home coming for them.