In a jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka, disgruntled former chief minister Jagadish Shettar resigned from the assembly and the party on Sunday over denial of a ticket to contest the May 10 elections, triggering a sharp reaction from chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and senior leader BS Yediyurappa who termed the move “unfortunate”.
Shettar (67) had met BJP president JP Nadda in the national capital last week, urging him to reconsider the party’s decision to deny ticket to him after his name was not included in the two lists of 212 candidates for 224 assembly seats so far. A six-time legislator who was also the speaker in the Karnataka assembly, he was seeking a ticket from Hubballi-Dharwad (Central) assembly constituency.
On Sunday, Shettar submitted his resignation to assembly speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district.
“Today those who are originally from the BJP are being thrown out from the party. Today I am going out from my own house. I have been driven out of my own house. This has hurt me deeply. Against this background, I have resigned from the legislature assembly and the primary membership of the party,” he told reporters in Hubballi.
“Later, I will decide on my next course of action, whether to fight independently or with a party. The ill-treatment and humiliation by senior leaders of the party has hurt me. My decision is final. Some state leaders are mishandling the BJP system in Karnataka,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Later, I will decide on my next course of action, whether to fight independently or with a party. The ill-treatment and humiliation by senior leaders of the party has hurt me. My decision is final. Some state leaders are mishandling the BJP system in Karnataka,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Amid speculation that he would join the Congress on Monday, Shettar said: “I have not decided yet.”
Shettar’s move came a day after he held a meeting with Bommai, state BJP poll in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and Union minister Pralhad Joshi in Hubballi.
For this year’s elections, the BJP has so far dropped four incumbents in an attempt to fight incumbency and effect a generational change in the party’s state leadership.
Besides Shetter, former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi also resigned from the party and joined the Congress, last week, over BJP’s refusal to give him a poll ticket. The Congress has fielded Savadi from Athani constituency.
Both Shettar and Savadi are prominent faces of the Linagayat community that forms 17% of the electorate and is wooed by parties for the clout it wields.
Bommai said Shettar’s resignation was “unfortunate” and has “pained and disturbed him”. “BJP president JP Nadda and Union home Minister Amit Shah had promised a big position at the central level to Shettar. The name of Shettar was on the list of the district-level core committee but the denial of the ticket was the decision of the high command. The time has come to bring the changes,” he said.
Reacting to the exits, Yediyurappa said the people of Karnataka “will not forgive Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi”. He went on to say that the Lingayat community has stood by the BJP and that he would ensure the community leaders get equal opportunity.
Several party leaders also asserted that these exits will not upset the Lingayat community that plays a key role in shaping the electoral outcome in the state.
Commenting on the developments, a party leader said the exits are “bad optics” for the BJP but will not elicit an adverse response from the Lingayats as it did during the state polls in 2013, when Yediyurappa, a former chief minister and strongman from the community, snapped ties with the party.
“Anyone who thinks Shettar can be compared to Yediyurappa is making a grave mistake. The two leaders may have been CMs, but their stature is not comparable. Yediyurappa commands respect and following among the Lingayats who know it is the BJP which has their best interest in mind,” the leader said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Referring to Yediyurappa’s exit from the party in 2012, which was attributed to BJP’s loss in the 2013 assembly polls, the leader said: “That year (Yeddiyurappa’s) Karnataka Janatha Paksha dented the BJP’s votebank and the tally went down from 110 seats (in 2008) elections to 40.”
Although the high command’s decision to replace Yediyurappa with Bommai (also a Lingayat leader) in 2021 did set off concern that the BJP could potentially face a backlash in the May 10 elections, the party made amends. First, it announced the former chief minister’s inclusion in the parliamentary board, the BJP’s highest decision-making body; and then to placate the leader and his supporters, it said he would be guiding the election campaign. The party also acceded to his demand for a ticket for his son Vijendra from the family borough of Shikaripur.
The BJP leader quoted above said it was Yediyurappa who had proposed Shettar’s name for the chief minister’s post in 2012 when the party faced a crisis and a section of leaders pushed for replacing then chief minister Sadananda Gowda. “The party gave Shettar plenty of opportunities but when it came to accepting the party’s decision with grace, he chose to quit,” the leader said.
“Senior leaders Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi and Bommai reached out to him. He had the option of going to the Rajya Sabha as a member or even as governor, but he turned down the party’s efforts towards reconciliation,” a second BJP leader said, also seeking anonymity.
Savadi, 63, a former deputy chief minister, too was asked to reconsider his decision given he could still land a ministerial berth, the second leader said. “He was told that he would be considered for a ministerial position in the state since he still has over five years to go as MLC,” the leader said.
The exits have given the opposition, particularly the Congress, a chance to dub the BJP as anti-Lingayat. Party MLA from Kalaburagi, Priyank Kharge told reporters: “It’s very unfortunate how the senior leaders who built the BJP from scratch are being treated in Karnataka. It’s not only Jagadish Shettar, look at what happened to Gulihatti D Shekar. All those who built the party are today being forced to resign or they are being denied tickets. Even Yediyurappa is being treated so badly.”
Reacting to Kharge’s remarks, a third BJP leader said: “The exits are no doubt an agnipariksha (trial by fire) for the BJP, but the party will meet the challenge with a fierce campaign and electoral battle.”