Karnataka’s former chief minister Jagdish Shettar joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, 25 January, a year after switching to Congress. The 68-year-old Shettar, a staunch RSS man and a senior BJP leader, switched to Congress after he was denied a ticket during the 2023 assembly election.
Lingayat leader Jagadish Shettar has contested the 2023 Karnataka Assembly Elections as a Congress candidate from Hubli-Dharwad-Central. Shettar suffered defeat, he was beaten by the BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai by over 34,000 votes, after which he blamed “money power and pressure tactics”.
On Thursday afternoon, he reached the BJP headquarters where he was welcomed back to the party in the presence of former CM BS Yediyurappa and state BJP President BY Vijayendra.
“Today, it is good news for us that Jagadish Shettar has again joined the BJP leaving Congress MLC post. We welcome him in the party,” said Union minister Bhupendra Yadav.
“The party gave me a lot of responsibilities in the past. Because of some issues, I went to the Congress party. In the last 8-9 months, there were a lot of discussions in the BJP. Karnataka BJP leaders and workers asked me to come back to the BJP. Yediyurappa ji and Vijayendra ji also wanted me to come back to the BJP. I am rejoining the party with the belief that Narendra Modi ji has to become the PM again,” Jagadish Shettar said as he rejoined.
When Shettar left the BJP in April 2023, he said he was humiliated by the senior leaders of the BJP and that his decision to quit the Saffron party was final. “How the BJP leaders treated me in the last few days is nothing but a humiliation. I was ill-treated by the party members which forced me to announce my resignation. Some leaders in the state are misusing the BJP system,” Shettar said at that time.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had on Wednesday said that the BJP is desperately trying to get back former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar into its fold ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The deputy chief minister said the BJP and the JD(S) are suffering from a serious deficit of leadership and self-confidence and hence they have joined hands. Now they are desperately trying to get Shettar back into the party fold.
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“We made H D Kumaraswamy the Chief Minister to keep the BJP away. Now, Kumaraswamy is embracing the very people who brought his government down. This unholy alliance is a clear example of the state of affairs in the two parties,” he added.
(More details awaited…)
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Published: 25 Jan 2024, 01:27 PM IST