BELAGAVI: Amid debate among local BJP workers whether to accept former chief minister Jagadish Shettar as the BJP candidate for the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency and with efforts of former chief minister BS Yediyurappa to pacify the dissidents seemingly not completely successful, a BJP rebel is getting ready to take on Shettar.
Mahantesh Vakkund, an RSS worker and BJP Mahanagar unit vice-president, who was one of the aspirants for the BJP ticket, has hinted that he could contest as a rebel party candidate from the constituency and taken on Shettar.
Vakkund told TNIE, “I have been trying to get a BJP ticket for the last three Lok Sabha elections. This time, the party had asked me to be prepared to contest the elections. But, all of a sudden, the ticket has been given to Shettar, who had joined Congress a year ago and made allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I will take a call to contest the election as BJP rebel candidate after my followers’ convention on Sunday.”
He also said, “I have been involved in social work through the Mahantesh Vakkund Foundation and saved many lives during Covid by arranging oxygen cylinders. Majority voters in Belagavi are Panchamsali Lingayats and they will support me.”
He termed the party’s decision to name Shettar for Belagavi as injustice meted out to local party leaders and has openly expressed his disappointment on social media.
Local party workers pointed out that the party has given tickets to three candidates from Hubballi -- Pralhad Joshi from Hubballi-Dharwad, Basavaraj Bommai from Haveri and Jagadish Shettar from Belagavi. They commented sarcastically whether all the seats in North Karnataka should have been given to Hubballi candidates.
They wondered whether the party did not find any suitable local candidate for Belagavi. Sitting MP Mangal Angadi, former MLC Mahantesh Kavatagimath, Mahantesh Vakkund, Ex-MLAs Anil Benake and Sanjay Patil Ramesh Katti and many others were aspirants, but all of them have been ignored to pacify Shettar, who rejoined BJP after quitting Congress recently.
Some party workers alleged that Shettar had shifted a major part of the oxygen quota meant for Belagavi given by the central government to Hubballi during Covid, leaving patients in Belagavi to suffer.
Congress leaders Laxmi Hebbalkar, during one of her campaign speeches, alleged that Shettar had shifted IT-BT and other industrial projects to Hubballi from Belagavi when he was minister for medium and large-scale industries.