In June 2016 Madhwaraj was inducted into the Siddaramaiah led government of Karnataka as a cabinet minister with Independent Charge.

Pramod Madhwaraj unsuccessfully fought the 2008 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election on an Indian National Congress ticket losing to K. Raghupati Bhat of the Bharatiya Janata Party by about 2500 votes.

However, in the following 2013 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election Madhwaraj won the seat defeating B. Sudhakar Shetty of the Bharatiya Janata Party by over 39000 votes.

[11] In the 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, Madhwaraj lost to K. Raghupati Bhat of the Bharatiya Janata Party by about 2000 votes and a margin of 5%.

He contested unsuccessfully from the Udupi-Chikmangalur Lok Sabha Constituency against Shobha Karandlaje of the BJP and lost by a margin of 28% or over 350000 votes.