New Delhi: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar, who left the BJP to join the Congress before the state assembly elections last year, rejoined his old party on Thursday.
Shettar noted his lengthy relationship with the BJP, and many of his supporters urged him to rejoin the party.
The Lingayat leader joined the party in the presence of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa, Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra and its media head Anil Baluni.
Party sources said Shettar had met Home Minister Amit Shah and its national president J P Nadda as he was persuaded to rejoin the saffron organisation which he had quit in a huff after being denied a ticket to contest the assembly polls.
He had then joined the Congress but lost the polls. The Congress has, however, made him a MLC, a position he has now quit to join the BJP.
Shettar also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, saying India has been strengthened under him.
With PTI inputs