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Former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said Jagadish Shettar, who recently rejoined the BJP from Congress, would contest from Belagavi in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Yediyurappa said that Shettar agreed to contest from Belagavi after he convinced him.
“I’m confident he will win by a huge margin,” Yediyurappa said.
Shettar had left the BJP and joined the Congress after he was denied a ticket by the saffron party in the May 2023 Karnataka Assembly election.
The Congress fielded the former Chief Minister from the Hubballi-Dharwad constituency, but Shettar lost.
After his defeat in the Assembly elections, Shettar was appointed an MLC by the Congress. In January, he resigned from the Congress and rejoined the BJP.
Shettar is a senior Lingayat leader who has held several portfolios in Karnataka.
In its first list of 20 Lok Sabha poll candidates from Karnataka, the BJP has dropped as many as nine sitting MPs, including its former state unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel and Pratap Simha. The candidates for eight seats are yet to be announced.
The seats heavily influenced by Lingayats are Hubballi-Dharwad (H-D), Haveri and Belgaum. While Union Parliamentary Affairs minister Prahlad Joshi has been fielded from Hubballi-Dharwad, former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has been nominated from Haveri.
Party insiders told India Today that Shettar has slim chances of getting Belgaum as he is a Banajiga Lingayat and the numerically strong Panchamashali sect of Lingayats is yet to be accommodated.
