Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar’s decision to rejoin the BJP, after bidding goodbye to the Congress less than one year after joining it, will force the grand old party to rework its poll strategy to garner more seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Within the Congress, the resignation of 68-year-old Mr. Shettar, a staunch RSS man and senior BJP leader, is expected to give strength to the demand for a Deputy Chief Minister’s post to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat leader in the State.
Soon after Mr. Shettar rejoined the BJP, Industries Minister M.B. Patil, who is one of the strong claimants for the post, hinted that the party high command will have to take a decision on providing Deputy Chief Minister’s post to the Lingayat legislator in the State ahead of the general elections.
Meeting with Savadi
KPCC president and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar huddled with another former Minister and Congress MLA Laxman Savadi, who quit the BJP and joined the Congress on the eve of the 2023 Assembly elections. A visibly upset Mr. Shivakumar played down the reporter’s questions on more leaders quitting the party, saying: “No one will leave the Congress.”
Mr. Shettar belongs to the dominant Linagyat community whose support is seen as crucial for any party in the elections. The Congress, which swept a chunk of the votes and seats in the 2023 Assembly elections, is keen to win the support of the community and win a majority of Parliamentary seats too, particularly in the North Karnataka region. Interestingly, the party recently announced that philosopher and social reformer Basaveshwara, revered by the community, is Karnataka’s “cultural leader.”
Caste calculations
With a backward classes leader, who enjoys support of AHINDA bloc, Siddaramaiah, heading the government, the Congress is also keen to retain support of other dominant communities, besides placing implementation of five “guarantees” before voters in the run-up to the elections. The Congress has set a target to win 20 seats in Parliament elections. However, if the BJP succeeds in bringing back more leaders, who joined the Congress on the eve of the last Assembly elections, the strategy would require a rethink.
In fact, though there was much talk of many from the BJP and the JD(S) joining the Congress, after MLA B.Y. Vijayendra was appointed the State BJP chief and the BJP’s Central leadership provided a green signal to the BJP-JD(S) alliance, this process has slowed down. The Congress’s plan to bring back BJP MLAs S.T. Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar seems to have hit a hurdle.
