In a setback to the BJP former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar resigned from the state assembly on Sunday and may contest against the BJP nominee on a Congress ticket .
Shettar is the second big BJP leader to quit the assembly and the party after deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi also resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress after being denied a ticket.
According to sources, Shettar , an important leader from the North of Karnataka, would cross-over to the Congress a day after.
The six-time MLA was hoping to run for the Hubballi-Dharwad central constituency but was denied ticket despite the party veteran air dashing to the National Capital and appealing to the top party leadership to consider his claim to contest his ‘last assembly elections.’
BJP has gone for a ‘generational change’ in ticket allocation, bringing-in over 52 new faces for the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka.
Karnataka Chief Minster Basavaraj Bommai said Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Shettar on Saturday and tried to persuade him to stay back but Shettar did not step-back.
Shettar reached Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district and handed over his resignation letter to assembly speaker Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri, a BJP leader.
“I have decided to resign from the legislative assembly and the BJP. I have built and raised this party from scratch. But they (some party leaders) created a situation for me to resign from the party,” he said.
Bommai and Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Dharmendra Pradhan also tried to convince Shettar to stay in the party, but he remained firm in his decision to contest the assembly election.