Dharawad: Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has become the centre of attraction these days in the state of Karnataka. Once, BJP’s strongman and 15th Chief Minister of the state after being denied a ticket from BJP, joined Congress to contest from Hubballi-Dharawad Central constituency. He is facing newbie Mahesh Tenginakai of BJP. What more Shettar’s Tenginakai is Shettar’s mentee. Further, what gains significance is that Mahesh Tengakai’s name was proposed by BJP General Secretary B. L. Santhosh.
The question that has been raised time and again is why BJP denied ticket, though he was once the Chief Minister from the party. His father was also Mayor from Janata Party.
However, the people of the constituency beg to differ. They are not at all surprised that Shettar has been denied a ticket. They alleged that he was not pro-development.
The Assembly segment which has been championed and consolidated for many years by Shettar, in 2023, has become a ground that will host a high-stake battle for self respect, and a battle of ego where BJP wants to portray that Shettar is not bigger than the party. Likewise, Shettar is trying to convey to the voters that BJP has humiliated and backstabbed him and that the people of Hubballi will not forgive them.
Moreover, Shettar dis have the might to contest the election as an independent but he chose to ally with a National party like Congress even though ideologically it was very different. Congress cadres too have begun to support Shettar but on the ground and during the campaigns Shettar has to do a lot of explaining.
Santhosh’s handling of the BJP’s affairs in Karnataka, his home State, has come in for criticism and he is accused of nursing prejudices against some people and having his own favourites. The Lingayat leader B. S. Yediyurappa’s meteoric rise in Karnataka politics and his political trajectory, which culminated in his becoming the Chief Minister for four times, is something that Santhosh had watched closely and thus formed his own opinion about Yediyurappa’s style of functioning.
When Yediyurappa left the BJP just before the 2013 Assembly polls and formed his own party, the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), it had disastrous consequences for the BJP and Yediyurappa himself. Thus, he returned to the BJP at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and played a crucial role in the BJP winning 17 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Santhosh was still watching from the sidelines as a keen observer. Santhosh in 2023 wants to spin everything around himself by giving weightage and prominence to those lightweights who were opposed to Yediyurappa and Shettar, it is said.
Shettar’s victory or loss will be significantly symbolic, indicating whether at all the new experiment has worked in BJP’s favour. The Hubballi-Dharwad Central Assembly seat will in that sense be a yardstick to measure BJP’s moves.
Shettar says he has no regrets and will never go back to BJP. His pain and agony was evident, he even choked while sharing his feelings but seemed confident to bounce back. His political wisdom says it’s time fornexit from BJP and he minced no words in saying that Congress’s position has improved drastically. Will Jagadish Shettar prove to be BJP’s nemesis?