Bengaluru: Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge has said that former Karnataka chief minister and senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar joining the Congress will “empower” the party. "This will empower (the party), there is unity. This shows that everyone is happy with the atmosphere that is forming in Karnataka today and all leaders are connecting with us,” Kharge said while speaking to the media after Shettar joined the Congress on Monday.
Kharge said that Shettar's joining the Congress was “not a question of Lingayats”. “They (Lingayats) are connecting with us by looking at our programs. We welcome them," Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said. Earlier, Shettar joined the Congress party in the presence of Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar after he was denied a ticket by the BJP.
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Shettar's switch from the BJP to the Congress is seen as a major boost to the Congress and a blow to the BJP when the state assembly polls are weeks away. Besides Kharge, senior Karnataka Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also lavished praise on former chief minister Jagadish Shettar.
Siddaramaiah also called Shettar a “decent politician in Karnataka”. “Though he's from RSS, he's a secular person,” Siddaramaiah said after Shettar joined the Congress. Siddaramaiah further alleged that Shettar was “disrespected” by the BJP adding he was hurt by the party denying him a ticket. “The way he (Jagadish Shettar) was treated in BJP, this shouldn't happen to anyone in any party,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Congress leader said that Shettar's joining will give the party a major boost and help it to cross the 150 mark in the assembly elections scheduled on May 10. Counting will be done on May 13.
