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My fight is for Lingayat self-respect, says Shettar
Former Karnataka CM Jagadish Shettar, who left BJP to join Congress, says his fight is for "self-respect" and not for acquiring any position. Shettar claims that denying him a ticket was part of a strategy to ease out all senior party leaders on the pretext of age so that someone in Delhi could become the claimant. He also stated that he would be campaigning for Congress in all Lingayat-dominated constituencies.
Former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar, who left the BJP to join the Congress, has said that his fight is for “self-respect” and he is not contesting the polls to acquire any position.
In an interview, the senior Lingayat leader appeared to blame BJP national general secretary BL Santhosh for his exit without naming him. “Certain leaders felt that if Shettar gets elected on the BJP ticket, he would become senior-most and will have the authority to claim a high post. This despite me telling the high command that I will not claim any post,” he said.
He added that denying him a ticket was part of a strategy to ease out all senior party leaders on the pretext of age so that someone in Delhi could become the claimant. Asked whether the BJP denied him a ticket to promote either Pralhad Joshi or BL Santosh, Shettar said it was “left to the BJP” what they wanted to do about the CM post. “I am fighting for my self-respect,” he said, claiming that it was his last electoral fight.
“My age is 67, so age can’t be a factor. There are no corruption scandals to my name. No blemish. What is the reason for the denial of the ticket? I want an answer,” he said and asked how come Shivraj Singh Chouhan was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for the fourth time. “Have you ever denied him a position,” Shettar asked.
On whether the Congress had promised him any position, he said, “I just want to be an MLA and serve people.” He said while corruption may be an election issue for the Congress, self-respect was the issue for him. “My cause is that my self-respect is hurt, other issues they will take as a political party and they will fight,” he said.
The Lingayat leader also said that he would be campaigning for Congress in all Lingayat-dominated constituencies and claimed that many seers of Lingayat Mutts supported him in his fight.
Shettar is contesting the Hubbali-Dharward assembly constituency in north Karnataka, from where he was the BJP MLA for six terms. Shettar comes from a family of RSS leaders; his father was the first Jan Sangh mayor of Hubbali city.
