New Delhi: A day after he openly defied the BJP high command, former Karnataka chief minister and Lingayat leader Jagadish Shettar Wednesday said he has informed party president J.P. Nadda that he intends to contest the 10 May assembly polls and has presented his case before the senior leadership.
His remarks come a day after he publicly expressed his unhappiness over the high command allegedly asking him to make way for others, hours before the BJP released its first list of candidates Tuesday night.
The BJP has not yet announced its candidate from Hubli-Dharwad (Central), a seat Shettar has held since 2008.
Meanwhile, former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa has stepped in to defuse the crisis. Speaking to mediapersons in Bengaluru, he said: “Ninety-nine per cent Jagadish Shettar will be given an election ticket.”
Speaking to ThePrint, Shettar said he has asked the BJP high command to allow him to contest from his traditional seat Hubli-Dharwad. “High command has assured that they will address my issue. I have presented my case before them. I have said to the party president that I am going to fight the election, now they have to decide my case.”
At a time when assembly polls are just a month away, the Karnataka BJP has found itself facing a number of challenges in the form of resignations, resentment, and a potential rebellion. Moreover, the party faced protests in Belagavi district Wednesday after two sitting MLAs from there did not figure in the first list of candidates. Ahead of a tight electoral battle, it is already fighting the corruption narrative being levelled by the Congress against the Basavaraj Bommai government.
After the Shettar episode, former deputy chief minister and three-time former MLA from Athani Laxman Savadi resigned from primary membership of the BJP after he was denied a ticket from the seat. The party has instead fielded sitting MLA Mahesh Kumathalli, who was backed by BJP leader and former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi.
But it was the otherwise mild-mannered Shettar’s outburst that truly shook the BJP leadership, party sources told ThePrint, adding that soon after Tuesday’s crisis, both Nadda and state election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan called the 6-time MLA.
State BJP vice-president Nirmal Surana told ThePrint, “Normally, after ticket declaration, people show their anger but the party will convince most of them in a day or two to work for the party. It’s natural in a big family but it does not mean it will impact our poll prospects.”
However, a senior BJP, not wanting to be named told ThePrint that the party’s crisis management team is hard at work, trying to placate upset leaders by listening to their grievances. “Chief minister Bommai and Yediyurappa have been given charge to placate them. In some cases, party high command also called them to listen to their grievances. We have to minimise our risks, if such resentment persists, it can do damage to the party.”
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Old horse Shettar
At the press conference in Bengaluru Tuesday, Shettar looked visibly upset. “I am totally disappointed. I have worked for the party for more than 40 years, I have built the party from scratch. As a former CM, I deserve some respect. My uncle was a Jana Sangh MLA in 1967, my father in 1976 was councillor and mayor of Hubballi. The Shettar family has contributed a lot to strengthen the party in the north.”
He further said that he would have accepted the party’s decision had he been informed 2-3 months earlier. “I have started campaigning. After they informed me, I said I will contest at any cost and asked them to reconsider their decision. Survey of the assembly constituency has also suggested that there is no anti-incumbency against me. I don’t have a black spot on my political career, I have been loyal to the party but it seems loyalty has turned into a problem…”
Shettar became chief minister after Sadananda Gowda, backed by Yediyurappa, became CM but was asked to resign within a year in 2012. Shettar was picked after the Yediyurappa camp suggested to the high command that the election be fought under a Lingayat face. The BJP was facing a major image issue at the time due to coal mining allegations against Yediyurappa. In the 2013 elections, the BJP lost to the Congress, and Shettar was made Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka assembly.
Protests, resentment in Belagavi, Shivamogga
But Shettar’s is not the only case. The BJP, in its first list of poll candidates, denied tickets to nine sitting MLAs. On Wednesday, Savadi claimed, while speaking in Athani, that it was he, along with Minister C.C. Patil, who had stopped Bommai from joining the Congress and made him join BJP in the presence of Yediyurappa. Though not a sitting MLA, he won three times from Athani, but lost to the Congress candidate in 2018.
Savadi’s resignation also comes as a jolt as the BJP is currently facing a vacuum in Belagavi district after the untimely demise of leaders like Umesh Katti and Suresh Angadi.
Belagavi also saw protests Wednesday after two sitting MLAs out of the district’s 13 — Ramdurg’s Mahadevappa Yadawad and Belagavi North’s Anil Benake — were not given tickets. Mahadevappa’s supporters staged protests and raised slogans against the BJP high command, while Benake’s supporters did the same in front of Belagavi MP Mangala Suresh Angadi’s residence and threatened not to let BJP’s chosen candidate Ravi Patil campaign.
Even in Shivamogga, several district party officials resigned in support of senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa, who announced that he was retiring from electoral politics Tuesday.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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