Can Shettar help Congress to conquer its lost fortress?

The BJP snatched all seats in Hubballi-Dharwad cities after the Idgah maidan row which opened the floodgates for the BJP

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: With hardly three weeks left for the crucial Assembly polls, the Congress Party got a prize catch in the form of former chief minister and veteran BJP leader Jag adish Shettar who for mally joined the Congress at its party office here on Monday.

The moment after Shettar announced his decision to disassociate with the BJP by tendering his resignation from the Legislative Assembly membership and also the primary membership of the party, Congress leaders led by AICC General Secretary & In-Charge of Karnataka Affairs Randeep Singh Surjewala sent feelers to the BJP leader.

Other Congress leaders like KPCC Working President Satish Jarkiholi, MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar, and MLC Channaraj Hattiholi swung into action, contacted and convinced Shettar to join the Congress promising him a ticket from HubballiDharwad Central Assembly constituency from where he haS been winning since the last six elections. It did not take much time for the former CM to take the decision to join the Congress Party because he wanted to show his strength to the saffron party.

The BJP snatched all the seats in Hubballi-Dharwad cities after the Hubli Idgah maidan row which opened the floodgates for the saffron party to capture the strong fortress of the grand old party. Since the 1990s, the BJP had not allowed the Congress party to win some of the seats in the twin cities thanks to the strong foundation laid by BJP leaders like Shettar.

After Shettar won the Hubbali Rural (now Hubballi-Dharwad Central Seat) in 1994, he has not allowed the Congress party to capture it. With the change of party, can Shettar woo the voters of Hubballi towards the Congress is the million dollar question. Some of the wards in Hubbali City are Hindu dominant and only BJP candidates have been winning from the wards all these years.

So far, it is not known how many local leaders would follow him as they have considered the Congress Party as their rival and it would be difficult for them to seek vote against the BJP in the May 10 polls. A local BJP leader opined that Shettar should’ve contested as an independent candidate than as a Congress party candidate. There are examples like that of Haladi Srinivas Shetty from Kundapur who won the Assembly election as an independent candidate when he was denied a ticket.

Many Congress leaders were against the induction of Shettar and had protested against him for not doing anything in his constituency. Sources say it would be an uphill task for Shettar to win on a Congress Party ticket in Hubballi-Dharwad Central Assembly seat, that too with a section of Congress leaders against him.