BJP to feel the pain as Lingayat leader leaves after poll list

In the BJP first list announced on April 11, Kumatahalli was given the ticket from Athani. Apart from Savadi being denied the ticket, his supporters see in the move the BJP favouring his key political rival in the Belagavi region, Scheduled Tribe leader Ramesh Jarkiholi. Like Kumatahalli, Jarkiholi too defected to the BJP from the Congress in 2019.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he was hurt by Savadi’s decision to leave the BJP, adding: “The Congress does not have candidates for more than 60 constituencies (out of 224) in the state and so they were inducting leaders from other parties.”

State Congress president D K Shivakumar hailed the entry of Savadi into the party as “historic”. “In 63 constituencies across the state, there are BJP rebels. Nearly 90 per cent of these rebels are joining the Congress,” Shivakumar said.

The disgruntlement with the BJP ticket distribution continued, with dropped Hosadurga MLA Goolihatti Shekhar resigning from the Assembly and indicating that he would contest as an Independent.

Another sitting BJP MLA, M P Kumaraswamy, who was not refielded from Mudigere, also resigned from the Assembly and hinted at contesting from the seat on a JD(S) ticket.

Jagadish Shettar, former BJP CM, said he was giving the BJP a deadline “till Saturday afternoon” to decide on a ticket for him. He hopes to contest from Hubli Dharwad Central, a seat for which the party is yet to announce a candidate.

Savadi’s exit will hurt the BJP as it will move some of the Lingayat vote towards the Congress, which could prove crucial in at least three seats, and bolster the Congress attempts to win most of the 18 constituencies in the Belagavi region.

For Shivakumar, it’s a personal victory in a game of one upmanship against Jarkiholi, with the latter having managed tickets for several of his loyalists who left the Congress for the BJP in 2019, including Kumatahalli and Kagwad sitting MLA Shrimanth Patil.

The 2019 defections had brought the Congress-JD(S) government down, and helped the BJP return to power.

Savadi is also expected to rally other Lingayat rivals of Jarkiholi behind him, including the Katti family and Laxmi Hebbalkar of the Congress.

Satish Jarkiholi, Ramesh Jarkiholi’s brother who is a senior leader in the Congress, welcomed Savadi’s entry into the party. He hoped that his supporters in the BJP could work with Congress workers now that Jarkiholi had changed sides.

The BJP had invested a lot in Savadi, ignoring the 2012 embarrassment when he was caught watching pornography in the Assembly to bring him into the House as an MLC after his 2018 loss and to make him a deputy CM in 2019.

The promotion of Savadi was seen as part of the BJP central leadership’s attempts to counter Lingayat heavyweight B S Yediyurappa’s influence in the party. A deputy CM to Yediyurappa from 2019 to 2021, Savadi was removed from the post after Bommai took over as CM.

Ahead of joining the Congress, Savadi said: “It is true that I was made an MLC and the deputy CM by the BJP, but why did they remove me? Did I ask for the post of deputy CM? They gave it to me and took it away. Whom did they ask while doing all this? Did they not belittle me?” He also said that despite being in the BJP, he had always been wedded to “secular values”.

“I have been cheated by the BJP. I am not Arjuna or Bhima, (but) Ramesh Jarkiholi says that I am a non-entity. We will see in the polls whether I am a non-entity or not. The BJP says it has to keep its promise to the 17 defectors, but then why have they abandoned R Shankar and why have they failed to keep the promise made to me (to return the Athani seat)?” Savadi said.

Adding that Yediyurappa had not called to convince him against leaving the BJP – contrary to what the veteran leader claimed – Savadi also took a swipe at him.

Considered a challenger to Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra for the role of the next major Lingayat leader, Savadi said he had not placed any demands on the Congress while joining, such as a poll ticket for his son – Yediyurappa is believed to have pressed the BJP for a ticket for his son.

“There is only one demand, and that is for me to be fielded from Athani, and for several water projects to be completed in Athani… Unlike others, I am not in politics out of love for my children,” Savadi said.