‘Second Innings’: BJP-led Mahayuti scripts history with Maha landslide, JMM retains Jharkhand
The BJP-led Mahayuti stormed back to power in Maharashtra with a historic landslide that saw it on course to get over 230 seats in the 288-member Assembly
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who switched to the Congress in April last year, re-joined the BJP on Thursday after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
He was given the BJP’s membership in the presence of former CM and senior party leader BS Yediyurappa and state BJP President BY Vijayendra, at BJP headquarters in Delhi.
Speaking about his return to the saffron fold, Shettar said his karyakartas (workers) wanted him to come back to the BJP.
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“The party gave me a lot of responsibilities in the past. Due to some issues, I went to the Congress party. In the last 8-9 months, there were a lot of discussions, also BJP workers asked me to come back to the BJP. Yediyurappa ji and Vijayendra ji also wanted me to come back to the BJP,” he told reporters in Delhi.
The former Karnataka CM said that he is rejoining the party with the belief that Narendra Modi has to become the PM again.
In April last year, Shettar tendered his resignation as an MLA to Karnataka Assembly Speaker, Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri after he was reportedly denied ticket for assembly polls.
After his move, then Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had mentioned that BJP president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised Shettar a big post in Delhi.
With Lok Sabha elections drawing close, the BJP is hoping to overcome the assembly polls defeat and increase its Lok Sabha seats in the south Indian state.
Karnataka is the only South Indian state where the saffron party has a significant voter base. It is also the only South Indian state the BJP has governed directly.
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