Hubli: Turncoat Congress candidate and former BJP Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar lost by 35,000 votes in Hubli-Dharwad constituency. Jagadish Shettar's whose political opportunism came in the way of his RSS ideology paid the price of switching sides just before the polls. He was a member of RSS from a young age, ABVP during his college life and then BJP throughout his political life. However, now he has severed his relationship with the BJP for 40 years and started a new political life by joining the Congress.
Shettar is the leader who has gained equal status politically after the current senior state BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa. A senior politician of the party who won six times in a row and flourished in the Hubli Dharwad Central constituency for 3 decades has left the party recently. Shettar, who was known for his party loyalty, went against the political dice of the high command and joined the Congress. He has entered the arena as a Congress candidate from Hubli-Dharwad Central Constituency.
Jagdish Shettar, who was a staunch BJP leader, has been an MLA from the BJP for 6 times, and now he has joined the Congress after not getting a chance to contest for the seventh time in the BJP. Shettar, who has handled many important responsibilities from BJP's taluk unit president to the post of chief minister of the state, has attracted attention as a good politician, a good administrator, and with an amicable nature.
Shettar, who belongs to the Banajiga sub-sect of Lingayats, is a Sangh loyalist. Shettar was born on December 17, 1955 in Kerur village in Badami taluk of present Bagalkote district. Now he is 67 years old. His father is Shivappa S. Shettar and mother is Basavanyamma. The Shettar family had been loyal to the Sangh since his father's time. S.S. Shettar was a senior leader of the Janasangh. He was elected to Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation 5 times. Apart from this, he also has the distinction of being the 'First Jana Sangh Mayor' of Hubli-Dharwad. His uncle Sadashiva Shettar was elected to the state assembly from Hubli city in 1967. He is credited with being the first Jana Sangh leader to the Legislative Assembly in South India.
After being elected to the state legislative assembly for the first time in 1994, Shettar has been winning continuously in 1999, 2004, 2008, 2013, 2018. He has served as Leader of Opposition and Speaker. He handled many portfolios and managed as Chief Minister for 10 months. But, although he got almost everything, he got nothing completely.
Leader of Opposition: Shettar, who entered politics through the RSS, was appointed as the president of the Hubli rural BJP unit in 1990. In 1994, he became the president of Dharwad district unit. He became an MLA for the first time in the same year. He won in 1999 and worked as the leader of the opposition when SM Krishna was the chief minister. He was a minister in the Kumaraswamy cabinet for 20 months when the BJP-JDS 20-20 alliance government came to power in 2006. Later in 2008, when the BJP came to power independently, Shettar assumed the title of Speaker.
21st Chief Minister of the State: In 2009, he became Rural Development Minister. In the meantime, DV Sadananda Gowda became the Chief Minister when BS Yeddyurappa resigned due to allegations of corruption. But when he did not suit the party, he rose to the throne as a part-time Chief Minister. As the 21st Chief Minister of the state, he ruled only for 10 months. In 2013, when the Congress government came into existence, Jagdish Shettar got the position of Leader of the Opposition.
When he assumed the post of Chief Minister, he worked as a minister without pretending that he was the CM before when he came into being after Operation Kamala in 2019. Handled Large and Medium Industries account. Next, in July 2021, Yeddyurappa stepped down from the CM seat and when Basavaraja Bommai became the CM, he said that he did not want ministerial portfolios.
