New Delhi: Two prominent Lingayat leaders and BJP turncoats, former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar and former deputy CM Laxman Savadi — who switched to the Congress before the state polls — fared very differently in the Karnataka assembly elections, results of which were announced Saturday.
According to Election Commission data, Shettar lost the Hubli-Dharwad (central) seat in Dharwad district to BJP candidate Mahesh Tenginkai by 34,289 votes, while Savadi won the Athani seat in Belagavi district by 76,122 votes over BJP’s Mahesh Kumathalli.
Election to the 224-member Karnataka assembly was held on 10 May.
The defection of these two veteran leaders last month was seen as a setback to the BJP in the politically important Kittur-Karnataka region — the northernmost part of the state and a known Lingayat stronghold. The region comprises Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Bagalkote, Vijayapura, Gadag and Haveri.
However, the BJP had said that their leaving would not affect the party. “No matter who leaves the party, there will be no damage to us,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had said after the two leaders joined the Congress.
Shettar served as CM between 2012 and 2013, replacing D.V. Sadananda Gowda after the latter fell out with former CM and the BJP’s Lingayat strongman B.S. Yediyurappa. Two-time leader of the Opposition, he served as minister during Yediyurappa’s as well as Sadananda Gowda’s tenures as CM.
Before resigning from the BJP, Savadi was party MLC. He had served as deputy CM and transport minister from 2019 to 2021 in the Yediyurappa government, and was also minister for cooperation between 2008 and 2012.
A three-time MLA from Athani, Savadi lost the 2018 election to the Congress. Savadi was up against Mahesh Kumathalli, who went on to become one of the Congress MLAs responsible for the fall of the Congress-JD(S) government in 2019.
In 2012, Savadi and another BJP MLA C.C. Patil were allegedly caught watching porn during an assembly session. He had to resign as minister thereafter.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)