Jagadish Shettar's Decision to Quit BJP Backfires as he is Trailing By Big Margin

Senior politician Jagadish Shettar's decision to quit the BJP and join the Congress seems to have backfired as he is trailing by over 30,000 votes in Hubli Dharwad Central Constituency.

Going by the trends, BJP candidate Mahesh Tenginakai leading by a big margin and is likely to win the seat.

Shettar had ended his four-decade ties with the BJP for denying him the ticket to contest. The party high command had asked him to make way for newcomer Mahesh Tenginakai. Hurt by the development, he joined the grand old party which he had criticised all his life.

Shettar had won the seat six times in a row by a good margin. His decision to quit had met with criticism from the BJP supporters as the party had made him the Chief Minister and had given him different responsibilities at different times.

However, he had blamed BJP National General Secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh for rejecting his plea for a ticket in Karnataka.

"My name was in the list sent by the core committee. I don't know what happened in the Central Election Committee meeting. If they had offered me some other position earlier respectfully, I would have accepted it. BL Santhosh is the main reason for missing the ticket. For some people, the party is not important but individuals are. To disturb one seat, you destroyed the party," News9 quoted Shettar as saying.

"Nobody knows why I was denied a ticket despite having popularity, age, no criminal background and no corruption/CDs. Whereas the BJP has given tickets to 75 year-old people, family members and those who have criminal background," he said.

Nonetheless, he refused to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. In fact, the photos of the two leaders were seen at his office even after he quit the party.

"Immediately after shifting from one party to another, removing photos of earlier leaders is not a good thing. I cannot do that," he said in an interview with PTI.

He had also expressed confidence in winning the seat. The former CM said, "I have still maintained popularity because of pro-development works. There is no anti-incumbency. I am confident of winning with a thumping majority this time."

He said there is a "miscommunication" that he won in the last six consecutive elections with the support of BJP workers and Marathas."