Bengaluru: In the wake of Jagadish Shettar's recent return to the BJP from the Congress, former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said on Friday that Shettar would run from Belagavi in the upcoming Lok Sabha Election. Yediyurappa claimed that Shettar was persuaded by him to run for office from Belagavi.
After the BJP denied Shettar a ticket for the Karnataka Assembly election in May 2023, Shettar left the party and joined the Congress.
“Jagadish Shettar met me yesterday. He was not willing to contest from Belgaum (Belagavi) Lok Sabha constituency. I convinced him to contest from there. He has happily agreed to it,” Yediyurappa, a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board, told the media.
MP Mangala Angadi has clarified that 'the ticket for Belagavi is final for former Shettar. Mangala, who had gone to Delhi to ask tickets for another period was rejected.
She said, "Our family's name did not appear in the second list. So we went to meet the High Command leaders. However, by then there were talks of offering a ticket to Jagadish Shettar," she added.
When asked if she was happy with the choice or not, she said "There is no objection if senior leaders give ticket to Shettar. The state president has asked him to contest. If Shettar is given a ticket, I will campaign with him. I wanted tickets for my children. But the High Command has taken a decision," she responded.
Nine incumbent MPs, including Pratap Simha and Nalin Kumar Kateel, the former head of the state branch of the BJP, were dismissed off its initial list of 20 candidates for the Karnataka Lok Sabha election. Eight seats have not yet had their nominees announced.
The seats of Belgaum, Haveri, and Hubballi-Dharwad (H-D) are the most affected by Lingayats. Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has been nominated from Haveri, while Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi has been fielded from Hubballi-Dharwad.
According to party officials who spoke to India Today, Shettar has little chance of winning Belgaum because he is a Banajiga Lingayat and the Panchamashali sect of Lingayats, who are larger in number, has not yet been accommodated.
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