Former Karnataka chief minister Jagdish Shettar, who had quit the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year, rejoined his old party on Thursday. Shettar cited his long association with the BJP, and said many of his well-wishers wanted him to join back the party.
The Lingayat leader joined the party in the presence of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa, Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra and its media head Anil Baluni. Party sources said Shettar had met Home Minister Amit Shah and its national president J P Nadda as he was persuaded to rejoin the saffron organisation which he had quit in a huff after being denied a ticket to contest the assembly polls.
Shettar also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, saying India has been strengthened under him.
The 68-year-old Shettar, a staunch RSS man and a senior BJP leader, switched to the Congress after he was denied a ticket during the 2023 assembly election. The Congress has, however, made him a MLC, a position he has now quit to join the BJP. When he left the BJP in April 2023, he said he was humiliated by the senior leaders of the BJP and that his decision to quit the saffron party was final. “How the BJP leaders treated me in the last few days is nothing but a humiliation. I was ill-treated by the party members which forced me to announce my resignation. Some leaders in the state are misusing the BJP system,” Shettar said at that time.
Shettar has contested the 2023 Karnataka Assembly Elections as a Congress candidate from Hubli-Dharwad-Central. Shettar suffered defeat. He was beaten by the BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai by over 34,000 votes, after which he blamed “money power and pressure tactics”.
Shettar, a six-time MLA, served as the Karnataka Chief Minister for 10 months between 2012 and 2013. He began his political career in the 1980s and held various positions within the BJP, including state president and leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
The 67-year-old Lingayat strongman held various ministerial positions in the Karnataka government, including the portfolio of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.