The Congress is trying to prevent any more major defections after former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar returned to the BJP just nine months after he embraced the grand old party following the denial of a ticket.

Shettar who rejoined the BJP after meeting home minister Amit Shah and other top leaders in Delhi on Thursday has given way to speculation that more Congress leaders are considering a switch ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

However, deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar moved swiftly by meeting party MLA Laxman Savadi, who too had joined the party before the 2023 state elections.

Shivakumar, who is also the state party chief, even told reporters that no one else would leave the Congress. “No one will leave. Shettar leaving is another matter. The Congress treated him with utmost respect even after the people rejected him by 35,000 votes (in the state polls).”

But it was Shivakumar who had sounded extremely confident on Wednesday evening when he rejected all speculation about Shettar’s plan to return to the BJP.

He reminded how the Congress gave Shettar a political rebirth by inducting him into the Legislative Council even though he lost the state election from his home constituency of Hubli-Dharwad Central.

While Shettar and Savadi were two of the biggest catches in April last year, several district leaders had defected from the BJP to the Congress ahead of the state polls.

While Shettar’s return to the BJP is seen as the saffron party’s desperate measures to win back the confidence of the Lingayat community, its mainstay for several years, state minister M.B. Patil ruled out any such possibilities.

“The Congress has 34 Lingayat MLAs while the BJP has just 17 (of the 60 odd candidates it has fielded). About 75 per cent of the Lingayats voted for the Congress,” Patil, himself a Lingayat, said exuding confidence that the support would hold good even during the Lok Sabha elections.

“The Lingayats know what’s happening and know very well why Vijayendra (Yediyurappa) was made the state BJP president,” he said, alluding to how the influential community was angered by the unceremonious exit of B.S. Yediyurappa as chief minister in 2021, two years after he led defections and brought down the Janata Dal Secular-Congress coalition government.

Labour minister Santosh Lad was among the Congress leaders and workers who celebrated Shettar's exit. “I am personally happy with his exit,” said Lad.

Congress workers had on Thursday held a protest in Hubli against Shettar whom they had worked for in the state polls. They burnt an effigy of Shettar chanting “good riddance”, while others burst firecrackers and promised to teach him a lesson if he dared to contest for the Lok Sabha.