As Jagadish Shettar leaves for Congress, disquiet in BJP ranks over tickets, ‘handful in control’

One of the questions occupying Karnataka politics since two big-ticket exits from the BJP ahead of the state elections is if the guidelines laid down by Modi and Shah to pick candidates for polls — like age cut-offs for veterans and a ban on dynastic politics — have been selectively used to weed out rivals, by party leaders currently in control of the state BJP.

Many BJP insiders say the ticket allocation – candidates for 222 of the 224 seats are already decided – has gone completely against the leadership’s norms. Not only are relatives of several party leaders in the race, veterans like G H Thippareddy, 75, have been fielded at the same time as others like Shettar, 67, have been sidelined.

Jagadish Shettar, former Karnataka CM and six-time BJP MLA, joins Congress

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“There is a lot of bias, and a sense in the party that the central leadership has been misled on ticket allocations,” a source said.

The two representatives from Karnataka in the BJP Central Election Committee and the parliamentary board are former CM B S Yediyurappa and BJP national organising secretary B L Santhosh. Sources said the selection of candidates has involved major inputs from these two leaders, and they have been able to extract a large share of seats for their supporters.

Shettar, for example, has been replaced by a close associate of Santhosh, Mahesh Tenginakai, from his traditional Hubli Dharwad Central seat.

After joining the Congress Monday, Shettar said: “There was an organised effort to push me out of the reckoning in the BJP. This may be due to my seniority and possible emergence as a CM candidate if the party wins again… The BJP office is now under the control of a few people. The entire process, ticket allocations etc, is under the control of a handful.”

Other veterans who have got BJP tickets are J C Madhuswamy, 70, V Somanna, 72, and Halappa Achar, 70.

A BJP leader questioned the decision to field almost all the 17 leaders who had defected to the party from the Congress and JD(S) in 2019, rather than on merit. This led to the exit of some leaders fostered by the party (such as former deputy CM Laxman Savadi).

“In places where no second line leaders were groomed, state leaders have used the vacuum created by the exit of veterans to push their choices,” the leader said.

The move to award tickets to several newcomers with no political standing in their constituencies has also come under question. “We have to see the strategy adopted by Modi and Shah to bring the situation around,” a BJP leader said.

One of the narratives that has gathered steam is that the BJP is sidelining leaders from the dominant Lingayat community, which has traditionally backed the party. Shettar and Savadi who have left the party over the past few days are both Lingayat leaders with good standing in the Dharwad and Belagavi region, respectively.

The narrative was already in play on account of the perception that the BJP had forced Yediyurappa out of CM’s post.

The Congress has been trying to underline this, with its leader M B Patil tweeting Monday: “1. Suresh Kumar, Brahmin, facing anti incumbency, aged 67, given ticket. 2. Jagadeesh Shettar, Lingayat, facing pro incumbency, aged 67, denied ticket… Lingayats are not treated as the core of BJP, but merely a vote bank. Karnataka will witness a new massive political churn because of how Lingayats were mistreated by the BJP.”

On the family front, Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra, Vijayanagar MLA Anand Singh’s son, the son and brother of former MLA Umesh Katti, the son of BJP MP Umesh Jadhav, and spouses of BJP MP Annasaheb Jolle, and ex-MLAs Anand Mamani and Arvind Limbavalli have got tickets.

In all, the BJP has dropped 22 out of its 116 sitting MLAs (two BJP seats have been vacant since 2022, after the deaths of Umesh Katti and Anand Mamani). Two of the MLAs – Yediyurappa and Anand Singh — have been replaced by their sons.