Hubballi (Karnataka) [India], April 23 : The workers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday held a campaign near Congress leader Jagadish Shettar's residence in Madhura estate at Hubballi.
Earlier on April 16, former Karnataka CM Shettar who was denied a ticket to contest the polls quit the BJP and joined Congress.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who recently joined Congress said that the BJP had damaged his self-respect and that people of the state are intelligent enough not to support such a party.
Speaking to , Shettar said on Saturday, "Many Lingayat leaders left BJP. Hurting my self-respect means hurting the people of the region, which will affect the vote bank of the BJP. The people of the state are wise enough not to cast their vote for BJP."
"Byadagi in Haveri district is not in my constituency. There are so many Congress candidates who are asking me to campaign in their constituencies. BJP senior leaders of the Lingayat community have said that they are going to join the Congress and hundreds of followers within one or two days will also join," he said.
Shettar became the second senior leader from the Lingayat community to leave the ruling BJP and join Congress in less than a week. Earlier, former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi joined the Congress.
Meanwhile, Shettar is set to contest from his home-turf Hubbali-Dharwad Central Assembly constituency with a Congress ticket. BJP has fielded Mahesh Tenginkai against the Shettar for the seat in the upcoming polls.
The 224-seat Assembly polls are slated to take place in a single phase on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor