The Karnataka BJP, hit by a rebellion over election tickets, is in a bind over veteran leader and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar who wants one last chance to contest from his home turf although the party has asked him to make way for a new face.
If the BJP doesn’t renominate him from Hubli-Dharwad Central, which Shettar has represented six times, he is certain to leave the party and in all probability join the Congress. Former deputy chief minister and Lingayat leader Laxman Savadi switched to the Opposition party on Friday and was promptly rewarded with the ticket for Athani whose denial by the BJP had led to his dissidence.
While the party has been desperately trying to pacify Shettar by offering him a Rajya Sabha seat, apart from fielding a candidate of his choice from Hubli-Dharwad Central, he has remained firm on contesting.
All 16 BJP councillors from wards that fall in his Assembly constituency and 50 BJP district office-bearers submitted their resignations to state party president Nalin Kumar Kateel late on Friday protesting the denial of ticket to Shettar.
That they bypassed the district president and sent their joint resignations to the state president left the party in a state of shock. As rumours became stronger that Shettar was in touch with several top Congress leaders he was already friends with, the BJP rushed Union minister Prahlad Joshi to his home in Hubli on Saturday morning.
After an hour-long meeting with Shettar, Joshi said the “party would take an appropriate decision”. He did not set any deadline.
The minister’s frustration was evident when he snapped at a reporter who sought his comments on rumours that Shettar too was on his way to the Congress. “Has he told you that he is going to leave the party?” Joshi retorted before walking off.
Shettar later told a gathering of his supporters at his home that he had informed the party leadership about his decision to contest for the seventh time from his home turf. “I still have hope of getting a ticket.”
He dropped clear hints that he would not back down from his decision to contest. “Let us decide the next move once we come to that point (the BJP’s final decision). There is time till the evening,” he said, citing the deadline based on party chief J.P. Nadda’s assurance to him of taking a call by the end of the day.
Shettar said he visited Delhi on Wednesday at Nadda’s request. “I told Nadda that I am not for power politics. I just want to work for my constituency and seek one more chance to serve the people.”
The adamant stand of Shettar is being blamed on poor management by the party leadership that had played down murmurs about him being replaced several months ago.
Sources said the BJP leadership had even asked Shettar to begin preparations to contest for the seventh time. But in an eleventh-hour decision, he was told about a change of mind although the candidate for Hubli-Dharwad Central is yet to be finalised.
According to a party source, while the BJP’s central leadership doesn’t have any issues with renominating Shettar, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and Joshi have come in the way as neither wants their seniors with clout to be in the Assembly and become contenders for the chief minister’s post.
With 80-year-old B.S. Yediyurappa and 74-year-old K.S. Eshwarappa retiring from electoral politics, 67-year-old Shettar is the only possible challenger to Bommai if the party manages to win.
According to the source, Joshi has for long been second after Shettar when it came to political clout and popularity in Hubli-Dharwad district, the veritable gateway to the powerful political region of northern Karnataka. With Shettar out, Joshi would rule the roost in the region.
