Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar who resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress has lashed out at BL Santhosh, the national organising secretary of the BJP. Shettar questioned Santhosh’s political capabilities and accused him of heading a conspiracy that eventually made Shettar leave the BJP. Speaking to the reporters on Tuesday, April 18, in Hubballi, the Lingayat leader blamed BL Santhosh for sidelining him and denying the ticket from the Hubballi-Dharwad Central seat so that his loyalist Mahesh Tenginkai could be accommodated.
“Just to accommodate Mahesh Tenginkai, BL Santosh conspired against me,” he said. He also added that Srivatsa was given the party ticket from the Krishnaraja constituency in Mysuru due to his close ties with Santhosh, while sitting MLA SA Ramdas was sidelined. Shettar wondered why the BJP high command including Narendra Modi and Amit Shah trusted Santhosh despite the party’s poor performances in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“The high command gave charge of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to Santhosh. We can see how the party has performed in these states. We can see the conditions of the party there. Santhosh failed in these states and is now trying to advise the number one and number two of the party,” Shettar added. He also said that long time loyalists in the BJP were being sent away to make way for his own people and said that even BJP state unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel was answering to Santhosh.
“A whispering campaign started against me six months ago. They started to say that Jagadish Shettar would be denied a ticket this time and that it had already been finalised in Delhi. I was wondering how it was possible that a senior leader like me could be ignored like this. BL Santhosh was the one who had blessed this whispering campaign,” Shettar said.
Accusing BL Santhosh of turning a party-centric approach to a people-centric style, Shettar claimed that the party was in the hands of a few persons. He also accused Santhosh of disregarding the opinions of party MLAs and MPs and taking unilateral decisions. “No one wants to speak openly about it. But all the MLAs and MPs are being harassed,” he claimed.
He accused Santhosh of trying to push Mahesh even in the 2018 polls, where he was given a ticket to contest in Kalghatgi, even though CM Nimbannavar was the obvious choice. “They even made him (Mahesh) file nomination under police protection. It was only after widespread protests, that they had to withdraw it and give the ticket to Nimbannavar,” he said. He further said that if Santhosh wanted to promote Mahesh, then he should have made him a Rajya Sabha member, instead of offering it to a senior leader like Shettar.
Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, who heads the election management committee, said that Shettar should be happy with whatever party he had joined and not look back constantly and criticise the people in his old party. “Don’t go there and look for problems or criticise us. You do your work, and we will do ours, ” she said.
Addressing the media in Bengaluru on the evening of April 18, Shobha said that BL Santhosh was not a competition of Shettar. “He is neither an MP nor an MLA. He is not contesting any seat. He has worked all these years to strengthen the party. He is not a competitor to Jagadish Shettar.” She also said that Santhosh came from a certain kind of thinking, and he liked to promote youth who shared similar thinking. “It is not important whom we gave the ticket to. A youth who worked under you (Shettar) got the ticket. You should have welcomed it and worked for his win,” she added.