Shettar blames B L Santhosh for exit from BJP; says party in the grip of a few in K’taka

HUBBALLI: Congress leader Jagadish Shettar on Tuesday held BJP general secretary B L Santhosh directly responsible for the party denying to the ticket to him and instead, favouring Mahesh Tenginakai for the Hubli-Dharwad Central constituency.

Addressing a press conference here, he said Mahesh Tenginakai is the ‘manasa putra’ of Santhosh and alleged that he was responsible for sidelining of senior leaders. “In the last election, what happened to Mahesh Tenganikai in Kalaghatagi is well known. Six months ago, he started a smear campaign against me with the blessings of B L Santhosh. For the sake of giving the ticket to one person, the party is breaking today and B L Santhosh had pre-planned it. For him, the party is not important”, Shettar said.

Further, he said B S Yediyurappa had shunted out Keshav Prasad, but Santhosh brought him back and made him an MLC. “The party gave the ticket to Srivatsa in Krishnaraja segment while denying it to S A Ramadass. That too was Sathosh’s selection. Ramadass would have easily won, but he was ignored as he is not Santhosh’s follower. In Badami too, a similar situation has arisen. When Santhosh was in charge of Kerala, the party did not win even one seat. The same is the situation in Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Yet, they got him involved in Karnataka elections”, Shettar said.

He said the entire BJP in Karnataka is in the vice grip of a few people which is why the party is the state that it is today. “The party inducted IPS officer K Annamalai and made him president of the Tamil Nadu unit. He had worked under us, but me and D V Sadananda Gowda, both former CMs, were made to sit behind him on the dais. The party’s Karnataka uit president Nalin Kumar Kateel also goes by Santhosh says and this whole thing happened only because he wanted a ticket for his ‘manasa putra”, Shettar alleged.

Stating that Union minister Pralhad Joshi did not fight for his candidature, Shettar asked Joshi to recall his contribution in getting him elected as MP. “I was Assembly Speaker, so my wife campaigned for him. I have worked day and night for him and he should not give excuses now. Arun Jaitley had invited me into national politics in 2008, but I proposed Joshi’s name”, he said.