Though Congress is emerging as the winner in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls, its candidate Jagadish Shettar, who had quit BJP to join Congress ahead of the polls, has lost from the crucial Hubli-Dharwad Central constituency, that too by a huge margin. Notably, Shettar won on a BJP ticket three times in the 2008, 2013, and 2018 elections from this seat.
According to the data available on the Election Commission website, Jagadish Shettar has got 29340 votes while BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai got 64910 votes so far.
Shettar, a former chief minister of Karnataka, was one of the BJP’s most well-known figures in the region. Congress was thought to have greatly benefited psychologically from his departure from the BJP and subsequent move to their camp.
To put up a stiff fight against the turncoat, the BJP had fielded Mahesh Tenginakai as its candidate, while JDS had chosen Siddalingesh Gowda Mahanthavadeyar.
Shettar had resigned as MLA and from the primary membership of the party in April this year, after he claimed he felt ‘humiliated’ as BJP, sidelined him to give preference to younger candidates in the upcoming state assembly elections.
Reacting to his allegation, Karnataka’s chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai, had said that BJP offered Shettar a number of options, including a bigger post inside the organisation, governorship, or party ticket to a relative; however, Shettar rejected each one of them.
The counting of votes for the 224-member Karnataka Assembly began at 8 am on Saturday. The state went to polls on May 10.