Yediyurappa slams Shettar for decision to quit BJP
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka BJP strongman B S Yediyurappa on Sunday strongly criticised former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar for his decision to quit the party after being denied ticket to contest the May 10 Assembly elections, saying the people would not pardon him.
Noting that Shettar had served as the party's state unit President, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and Chief Minister, Yediyurappa asked, "What injustice have we done to Shettar?"
He said the people of his region would not pardon him.
The party's central leadership has suggested him to name a family member for the ticket, and also offered him to make a Rajya Sabha member and a Union Minister, he said.
Yediyurappa said the party had not asked him to retire from politics.
"Why are you going to Congress? Did we say that we are not giving you power?", Yediyurappa, a former Chief Minister asked. "What injustice have we done to him? He has already decided to go to Congress. Let him go."
He said no power can stop the BJP from coming back to power in Karnataka. "We will come back to power with a clear majority".
In a jolt to the ruling BJP ahead of the elections, Shettar tendered his resignation as MLA today.
His decision came after the party's central leadership made it clear that he would not be given a ticket to contest the polls.
Shettar had on Saturday said he would resign as an MLA and also part ways with the saffron party. The 67-year-old reiterated that he was firm on contesting the elections.
He submitted his resignation to the Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
