Moily had informed the Congress high command that 2024 elections would be his last but with the party denying him a ticket in favour of Raksha Ramaiah, son of former minister M Sitaram, the 84-year-old decided to bow out of the stage on Tuesday.

‍

Moily represented the Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha constituency in 2009 and 2014 but lost to B N Bachegowda in 2019, when the BJP won 25 of the 28 seats in Karnataka. Prior to his stint in parliament, Moily had represented Karkala in Udupi district in the state legislative assembly for more than two decades.

‍

During Moily's tenure in the Lok Sabha, the much-needed Yettinahole project was launched with the aim of providing drinking water to the parched areas in Kolar and Chikkaballapur.

‍

Moily was the Karnataka chief minister for a little over two years, from 1992 to 1994 and in his first stint in parliament, he held the portfolios of law, power and corporate affairs in the Manmohan Singh government.

Announcing his retirement from electoral politics, Moily said he would campaign for Raksha Ramaiah, whose candidature was met with murmurs of discontent from many leaders owing allegiance to former deputy speaker Shivashankar Reddy. They are unhappy with the party leadership for fielding a Bengaluru-based candidate for Chikkaballapur, a factor that may work in favour of NDA's Dr M Sudhakar, who belongs to Chikkaballapur.

‍

Meanwhile, Moily, author of several books including Sri Ramayana Mahaneswanam, based on the epic, is expected to turn his full focus to his literary life.

‍