Bengaluru:  Congress leader and former Minister K. Jayaprakash Hegde joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.

Mr. Hegde and another Congress leader Ratan Singh, former MLA, from Hospet joined the BJP in the presence of party State president B.S. Yeddyurappa at a programme held at the party’s State headquarters in Bengaluru.

On the occasion, Mr. Yeddyurappa took exception to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah terming the episode of revelations of a diary — said to have been recovered by the I-T sleuths from the residence of Congress MLC K. Govindaraj, showing alleged pay-offs to the Congress central leadership — as a conspiracy by the BJP to defame the Congress.

He challenged the Chief Minister to seek a CBI probe into the episode if he was so confident that no pay-offs were made to his party’s central leadership.