Hubbali: Jagadish Shettar, who left BJP and joined Congress during the run-up to the Assembly elections after the saffron party denied him a ticket, got defeated in the Hubballi-Dharwad (Central) seat, PTI reported.
A former Karnataka chief minister, Shettar lost the race by a big margin of 34,289 votes, proving that his move at the 11th hour did back him. BJP's Mahesh Tenginakai, a debutant in electoral politics, defeated Shettar, who is a six-time MLA.
The former chief minister had quit the BJP on April 16 and resigned as Hubli-Dharwad (Central) MLA after being denied a ticket for the assembly elections.
Shettar got 60,775 votes, while Tenginkai bagged 95,064 votes in the high-stake battle. JD(S) candidate Siddalingeshgowda Mahanthavadeyar was in third place with 513 votes. As many as 1,251 NOTA votes were cast in the seat.
Mahesh Tenginkai is considered close to BJP General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh. Mr Shettar won the Hubballi-Dharwad (central) seat in 2018, beating the Congress' Mahesh Nalwad with a margin of 21,306 votes, marking his sixth win in the Assembly elections.
Shettar is a staunch RSS man, reports PTI, that he was part of the Jan Sangh and BJP for decades before he left the nation's ruling party.