Karnataka election results: BJP turncoat Jagadish Shettar loses to former party's candidate in Hubli-Dharwad

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who jumped ship and joined the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections, ironically lost in his constituency to none other than the candidate from his former party, the BJP, even as the grand old party stands at the cusp of a sweeping victory in the state.

Jagadish Shettar, a prominent leader from the Lingayat community, who had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after being denied a ticket and joined the Congress, lost to Mahesh Tenginakai, the saffron party’s candidate from the Hubli-Dharwad Central assembly segment by almost 30,000 votes.

Shettar, a former Chief Minister of Karnataka and a six-time MLA, had quit the BJP claiming “ill-treatment by the saffron party, after being denied a ticket from the Hubli-Dharwad Central and had later joined the Congress.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had hailed Shettar’s joining into party ranks and had predicted that the veteran Lingayat leader’s entry would lead the Congress to a massive win in Karnataka.

Kharge’s latter prediction came true, however, the BJP had also said that Shettar won’t be able to win this time around when asked the reason behind denying a ticket to the senior politician.

Former Chief Minister and another major Lingayat leader, BS Yediyurappa had termed Shettar decision to quit the BJP a mistake saying that the party had promised him a Rajya Sabha membership and a ministerial berth in the BJP-ruled Central government.

Yediyurappa said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had himself spoken to Shettar about the matter but he did not budge and made the mistake of quitting the BJP.

The Congress is all but on the verge of forming a majority government in the state as Chief Minister Basavaraj implicitly conceded defeat saying that BJP wasn’t able to cross the “magic mark” despite the best efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Latest counts have put the grand old party ahead in the vicinity of over 140 seats, way ahead of the 113 required to form a majority government.