Karnataka Assembly Election 2023: After ex-deputy CM Savadi, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar joins Congress

Karnataka Election 2023: A day after resigning from the Karnataka Assembly over his candidature not being reconsidered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming state Assembly elections, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar joined the Congress party. 

Shettar, a six-time Hubballi-Dharwad Central MLA, resigned from the Assembly on Sunday. The former chief minister alleged that he has been humiliated by denying the ticket and added that there was a systematic conspiracy against him in the ruling party.

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"Former CM, former Dy CM & others including many MPs unconditionally want to join Congress, I welcome all of them," says KPCC president DK Shivakumar pic.twitter.com/EMPkeHu58I

— ANI (@ANI) April 17, 2023

This is the second major blow for the ruling party in the state as former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi too joined the Congress on Friday.

Savadi too was denied a ticket to contest in the May 10 Assembly elections. He is now likely to be the Congress candidate in Athani in Belagavi district.

"From today onwards, I have no connection with the BJP. I will be a devoted and loyal worker of Congress just as I was in the BJP for 20 to 25 years," Savadi, a Lingayat leader in Belagavi district, said.

Savadi said he had helped BJP candidates Shrimant Patil in Kagwad and Mahesh Kumathalli in Athani to win the 2019 by-polls following the disqualification of 17 MLAs, which led to the fall of the H D Kumaraswamy-led Congress-JD(S) coalition government.

"I was also instrumental in the BJP's victory in 13 constituencies due to which I was made the deputy chief minister. The BJP had promised that I would contest the 2023 assembly election but they backtracked," he added.

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Ignoring Savadi's request, the BJP had earlier this week given the Athani seat in Belagavi district to sitting MLA Kumathalli.

Savadi is a three-time MLA from Athani but lost in the 2018 elections to Kumathalli, who was in the Congress at the time.

Kumathalli was among the group of defectors who helped the BJP bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition government and form its own government under the leadership of B S Yediyurappa in 2019.
He later joined the BJP and successfully contested the Athani by-election on the party ticket.

Karnataka Assembly elections 2023 will be held in a single phase on May 10 and results will be announced on May 13. Exits polls are likely to be out after the voting on May 10.

With PTI Inputs