Bengaluru: As campaigning intensifies for the upcoming Karnataka assembly election, former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader BS Yediyurappa has said that he will “give it in writing with blood” that former CM Jagadish Shettar, who defected from the BJP to join the Congress will not win from the coveted Hubbali-Dharwad Central assembly constituency.
“I will give in writing with my blood that Shettar will not win from here,” Yediyurappa said on Wednesday while chairing a meeting of Lingayat leaders in Hubballi. Jagadish Shettar, himself a Lingayat face is contesting from Hubli-Dharwad Central Assembly constituency in Karnataka after he was denied the ticket from the seat by the BJP.
After his meeting with Lingayat leaders in Hubbali, ex-CM Yediyurappa said that all the important Lingayat leaders attended the meeting. “I told them that Jagadish Shettar should not win. For that, we must work day & night. All of them accepted that," he claimed. The Hubli-Dharwad Central Assembly constituency is seen as a high-stake prestige seat both by the BJP and the Congress after Shettar's switch from the BJP to the Congress.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah who addressed a BJP campaign rally in Hubbali on Monday said that Shettar will not be able to win polls this time as “people of Hubballi-Dharwad region have always voted for BJP”. Shettar, who has won the seat six times in a row, however expressed confidence about winning the high stakes seat for the seventh time.
“In the last elections, I won with the support of the people of this constituency. I am now contesting for the 7th time and the kind of support I am seeing shows that even the people of this area were hurt by the way BJP treated me,” Jagadish Shettar said.
