Jagadish Shettar, the former chief minister of the state, joined the Congress on Monday after feeling betrayed by the BJP after being withdrawn as a contender for the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election.
In the state BJP unit, resignations have been pouring in since the party’s list of candidates for the 2018 assembly elections didn’t include many veterans.
Shettar, a well-known Lingayat leader, left the BJP and his position as an MLA on Sunday.
Shettar met key Congress leaders late yesterday night, according the NDTV story, after taking a chartered helicopter from Hubballi to Bengaluru.
The meeting in Bengaluru was attended by the Congress national secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, the party’s Karnataka president DK Shivakumar, and senior politician Siddaraimah, according to the story.
“I assumed that since I am a senior politician, the BJP would grant me the ticket, thus I was astonished to learn that I am not. Nobody approached me or made an effort to persuade me, Shettar stated, according to the report.
“I was forcibly expelled from the gathering I helped organise. I’m joining the Congress because I agree with its philosophy and tenets,” Shettar was quoted as saying in the newspaper.
According to the article, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge described Shettar as “non-controversial” and predicted that his election will increase party fervour.
“I don’t need to introduce Jagadish Shettar any more. Kharge was reported in the newspaper as saying, “He is the one who not only wins alone, he is the person who can win additional seats.
Shettar was horrified when the BJP allegedly advised him not to run for office in his Hubli-Dharwad Central seat.
In a recent news conference, Shetter said that a senior party leader from Delhi had requested him to make room for young people, which he claimed was unacceptable to him.
He had remarked, “I am not the kind of person who is adamant and stubborn, but this time the party has humiliated me, so I am being stubborn.”
While criticising Shettar, BJP leader BS Yediyurappa said that the party had not requested that he leave politics and that Shettar had been offered a number of choices.
He had a few choices, one of which was a ticket offered to a relative. He had said that the party had also promised to appoint him a Union Minister and a Rajya Sabha member.
The BJP has published two lists of candidates for the next assembly election, but 12 more have not yet been named for the 224-member house, including one for the Hubballi-Dharwad seat.
Shettar has previously won six elections.
Last week, senior politician Laxman Savadi also left the BJP and joined the Congress. Laxman Savadi was a strong Lingayat leader as well as a Yediyurappa supporter.
Karnataka assembly elections are set for May 10, and the results will be announced on May 13.