Jagadish Shettar: ‘The Party Hopper’, BJP Candidate From Belgaum Constituency (image-facebook/Jagadish Shivappa Shettar, the former chief minister of Karnataka is fielded as the BJP candidate from the Belgaum constituency. The saffron party has fielded Jagdish, expecting to fill its leadership vacuum in the district.
The 68-year-old is a senior Lingayat leader who hails from the north Karnataka region which is known to be one of the strongholds of the BJP. Shettar, though being a staunch RSS man, quit the saffron party to join the Congress ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls last year after being denied the ticket from Hubballi-Dharwad Central, a seat he had been winning since 2008. Though the Congress party gave him the ticket for the 2023 Assembly polls from the same constituency, despite his long-standing association with the seat, Shettar suffered a defeat, losing by a margin of over 30,000 votes to BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai.
But the grand old party, despite his loss in the election made Shettar a member of the legislative Council. However, the former Karnataka Chief minister returned to BJP citing his long association with the party.
The recent fielding of the BJP leader from Belgaum was not without controversies since he had been MLA from the Hubli-Dharwad Central. Shettar represented Hubli-Dharwad Central seat from 2008 to 2023. Within the party itself, there was discontent over an ‘outsider’ being fielded in the Belgaum seat.
During the campaign, Shettar has been pushing hard to counter the ‘outsider’ tag, saying Hubbali is his “Janmabhoomi” but Belagavi is his “karmabhoomi”.
However, for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, Shettar will contest in place of sitting MP Mangala Angadi, who was denied renomination.
The 67-year-old Lingayat strongman held various ministerial positions in the Karnataka government, including the portfolio of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj. He also served as the Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly, when the BJP first won the state in 2008.