In a major blow to BJP, former K’taka CM Jagadish Shettar announces exit from party
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In a second major blow to the BJP, former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar on Saturday announced his resignation as an MLA and from the party after he was denied a ticket for the May 10 state assembly election.
The party had asked him to relinquish the Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency which he has been representing since 1994.
“I have decided to resign from the legislative assembly,” Shettar told the reporters. He added that he has sought an appointment with Speaker Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri, who is at Sirsi, and tender his resignation.
“With a heavy heart I will resign from the party. I am the one who has built and raised this party. They (some party leaders) created a situation for me to resign from the party,” Shettar said.
The six-time MLA announced the decision after talks with BJP’s Karnataka poll in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi failed. The three leaders had met Shettar at his residence in Hubballi to pacify him.
The 67-year-old leader was prepared to head to Sirsi to submit his resignation as MLA to Kageri on Saturday evening, but last-minute efforts by the three leaders to pacify him by holding talks with him delayed the announcement.
Shettar also clarified that other parties including Congress have not contacted him.
Shettar said, “They (party leaders) have not understood Jagadish Shettar yet, for the way they humiliated me.” “I am upset over the way they ignored me, which made me think I should not sit quiet and I must challenge them. In view of that I had been saying that I will contest in this election,” he said.
The Lingayat leader also alleged there was a systematic conspiracy against him and added that he was never an indurate person but the party forced him to become one.
Earlier, former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi resigned from the party and joined the Congress.
Shettar' brother Pradeep Shettar is also a BJP MLC. Shettar is a close relative of Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa and former union minister Late Suresh Angadi whose wife Mangala Angadi is a Belagavi BJP MP.
