Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi announced that he is resigning from the primary membership in the party on Wednesday, April 12 after he was not given a ticket to contest in the upcoming elections. Sitting MLA Mahesh Kumthalli was given a ticket in Belagavi’s Athani from where Savadi is a three-time MLA and lost in 2018 to Kumthalli who was in Congress then. Kumthalli is considered to be a loyalist of another BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi, a rival of Savadi. He defected to the BJP in 2019, along with 16 other legislators from Congress and JD(S). He contested again from Athani on the BJP ticket and won.
Addressing the media, Savadi said that he would take a “strong decision” on Thursday, April 13 and will start working towards it from Friday, April 14. He also told the media that the BJP he joined was different from the party at present. Expressing gratitude for all those in the BJP who he had worked with in the past 20 years, Savadi wished them luck in all their future endeavours. Savadi is an influential Lingayat leader from the Belagavi area and played a crucial role in shifting 17 MLAs from Congress to JD(S) to Mumbai in 2019. This eventually helped the BJP form the government. As a reward for this, he had been appointed Deputy Chief Minister.
Savadi said that the way BJP had treated him in the recent past has been “unacceptable.” The leader further said that party seniors had told him around six months ago that he would not be contesting from Athani in the upcoming Assembly elections. Savadi mentioned that he and CC Patil brought the current Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to BJP while he was about to join the Congress.
The senior BJP leader also mentioned that leaders from different political parties have asked him to join their parties after BJP released their first list of candidates on April 11. Reports said that local Congress and JD(S) leaders have reached out to Savadi to join their party. Savadi first made headlines nationally in 2012 when he was caught watching pornography on the phone during a session of the Karnataka Assembly.
Reacting to Savadi's action, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, "I have an emotional bond with Savadi and is in constant touch with me. The party helped him while he was in difficulty and it will continue to help him in the coming days. A good decision will be taken to protect his respect and he has a bright future."