Smriti Irani slams Jagadish Shettar, says the party was backstabbed

A war of words has broken out following the exit of Jagadish Shettar, one of BJP's senior-most leaders in the state.

Union Minister, Smriti Irani has gone on to calling him a backstabber and said that those who can not be of their religion, family or ideology can never be of the public. "Today, I want to ask him whose number 2 are you? Shivakumar's or Siddaramaiah's?" Smriti Irani asked.

She was addressing a public meeting in Dharwad. "A few days ago one of our men backstabbed us and went to the other camp. Everyone knows, who I am talking about. I want to tell the people of Hubli-Dharwad that who cannot be of their religion, ideology of family, can never be of the public," she said.

"He is elder to us. We made him Chief Minister and got him to the top and for his own greed he went to the other camp," Smriti Irani added.

The comments come days after Union Home Minister, Amit Shah said that Shettar will lose the elections in Hubli as the party has always won this seat. "There will be no loss. Shettar himself will lose the elections. Hubli has always voted fro the BJP and all workers of the party are united," Shah had said.

Shettar hit back by saying, " he is tithe Home Minister. He must have taken a report of the constituency and the report of Karnataka politics. Day by day, the party is coming down.With that apprehension, he began attacking me."

Shettar ended his long alliance with the BJP and quit the party. This brought the Lingayat issue to the forefront. He became the second BJP leader from the community to leave the party. Prior to this Laxman Savadi from the Lingayat community had quit the party.