Can Jagdish Shettar Dent BJP In North Karnataka?

Just ahead of Next month’s high stake Karnataka Assembly elections, the BJP is facing a full-blown crisis. Several senior leaders of the party are quitting. And well, they are not just quitting, they are also joining Congress.

While the BJP barely recovered from the shock resignation of former DyCM Laxman Savadi, came another major jolt this week to the party. A senior leader of the party, 6-time MLA, Jagdish Shettar quit the BJP after not getting a ticket from the saffron party.

Hours after, he joined Congress. Not only that, but he also secured a ticket for his traditional constituency. Now why has Jagdish Shettar’s resignation rocked the BJP in Karnataka? Because he is among the very first batch leaders of the party units in the state, enjoys the goodwill of the Sangh, and influences at least 20-25 seats in Kittur Karnataka. While, former BJP CM BS Yediyurappa who is Shettar’s contemporary, has put up a brave face and said that he will stand with BJP and it will come back to power, one cannot say that Shettar and Savadi quitting has not worried the party at all. Let’s talk about this in today’s video before that.

Also Read: “I Am With The NCP & I Will Stay With The NCP”: Ajit Pawar Amid Maharashtra Political Crisis

On Sunday, Jagdish Shettar tendered his resignation. He submitted his resignation to the Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district. Shettar was upset after his name did not figure in the second list of BJP.

According to reports, BJP central leadership made it clear that he won’t be getting a ticket to contest from his traditional seat of Hubballi-Dharwad. On Monday, he joined Congress. A few minutes after he joined the Congress on April 17, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar handed over to Mr. Shettar the ‘B’ form to contest elections from the Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency.

The 67-year-old leader from North Karnataka hails from the Lingayat community- a community that holds key to power in many seats. After joining Congress he said that he quit BJP as he felt humiliated. He said, “A few leaders are controlling the BJP in Karnataka for serving their self-interest. I am not criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, or BJP President J.P. Nadda.

They are unaware of the developments in the BJP in Karnataka. Some party leaders are above the party (BJP) in Karnataka.” Later, he named BL Santosh. He said that BL Santosh conspired against him to get a ticket for his loyalist.

He also said that Santosh was made in charge of Kerala, TN, and Andhra Pradesh as well but he couldn’t win even a single seat for the party there. “A person who failed in these states is giving advice to number one and two of the party,” He said. Before going further, let’s look at the background of Jagdish Shettar. Shettar was born in Kerur village in Badami taluk of Bagalkot district in a family of politically active members. In his student life, he became an active worker of ABVP and later of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Shettar’s uncle Sadashiv Shettar was the first BJP member in the family — in its Jan Sangh avatar — to be elected to the Karnataka Assembly in 1967 from the Hubli constituency. Jagadish’s father S S Shettar was a five-time councilor in the Hubli-Dharwad city corporation and served as the first Jan Sangh mayor of any city in southern India. The Hubballi-Dharwad region is considered the undisputed fort of the Shettar family.

Shettar won his first election from the Hubli rural constituency in 1994 and since then he has been winning elections uninterrupted for record 6 terms. A quick fact, Do you know? in the first election, he won in 1994, Jagdish Shettar defeated BS Bommai who was a Janata dal candidate.

Before Shettar won the constituency, Hubli Rural was a stronghold of Bommai’s father SR Bommai. After his defeat, bommai faced political oblivion, until 2008 when he joined BJP but settled for a constituency in neighboring Haveri. Jagdish Shettar’s Rise through ranks A powerful leader, Jagdish Shettar also held multiple positions during his stint in BJP.

He served as the 15th chief minister of the state from 2012 to 2013. He also served as the Opposition leader (LoP) in the Legislative Assembly from 2014 to 2018 while the Siddaramaiah-led government was in power. A former Speaker of the Assembly (2008–2009), Shettar held various ministerial portfolios in the 2019-21 B S Yediyurappa Cabinet. Shettar also served as the revenue minister from February 2006 to October 2007 and as the rural development and Panchayati Raj minister from 2009 to 2012.

After quitting BJP, Shettar said that he helped build the party in North Karnataka along with his contemporaries like BS Yediyurappa and Late Ananthkumar. Another fun fact, it was because of BS Yediyurappa and Ananthkumar that Jagdish Shettar a fairly junior leader in BJP in 1999, was made LoP. One can make a separate video on his love-hate relationship with Yediyurappa and how it fuelled his rise in the party. Can Jagdish Shettar Help Congress? Congress has been attacking RSS for a long time now. But in the case of Jagdish Shettar, it openly welcomed the Sangh background leader with open arms and a red carpet.

The reason is, he belongs to the Lingayat community. The community is majorly spread in North and Central Karnataka. The north Karnataka region has as many as 50 constituencies. In 2018, BJP won 30 seats here. However, in the past few years, the Lingayat community’s relations with BJP seem strained. Congress wants to cash in on this. It hopes that Jagdish Shettar will be its Lingayat face. The party also hopes to win back the support of the community, which deserted the party in 1990 after Rajiv Gandhi removed Lingayat leader Veerappa Patil CM who belonged to the community. With leaders like Jagdish Shettar, and Laxman Savadi, Congress is aiming to build its own front of popular Lingayat faces.

Should BJP Be Worried? Jagdish Shettar quitting BJP is definitely a big jolt to the party. But the party has already moved to control the damage. CM Bommai says, not giving tickets to leaders like Shettar, was part of PM Modi’s plan to infuse new blood into the party.

But if the state’s political history is anything to go by then, the Lingayat community hasn’t taken it easy when their leaders are sidelined. One of the popular incidents is from 2007 when BS Yediyurappa scripted history by bringing the first-ever BJP majority govt to the south.

The massive support BS Yediyurappa received was because of the snub given to him by HD Kumaraswamy in 2006 who broke the agreement of power-sharing and refused to hand over the CM post to Yediyurappa. The Lingayat community rallied behind Yediyurappa. In the last few years, there have been multiple attempts to reduce Yediyurappa’s stature in the party, to sideline him. The Congress is portraying these incidents as Lingayat leaders being insulted by BJP. And BJP is finding it hard to push back this narrative. Separately Shettar’s influence in North Karnataka can also be gauged by the fact that the MP from Dharwad Prahlad Joshi depended on the clout and support of Shettar to win the seat. By his own admission, Shettar says he can cost BJP 20-25 seats. If this is true, it will be a major setback for BJP. But if it happens, Shettar will emerge as Congress’ Lingayat face.