Ex-CM Jagadish Shettar to contest from Belagavi, says BJP stalwart Yediyurappa

Former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday said party leader Jagadish Shettar will contest the Lok Sabha election from Belagavi.

“Jagadish Shettar met me yesterday. He was not willing to contest from Belgaum (Belagavi) Lok Sabha constituency. I convinced him to contest from there. He has happily agreed to it,” Yediyurappa, a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board, told reporters here.

The BJP is yet to officially announce his candidature for the seat.

Yediyurappa said there is no doubt that the BJP will win the election from Belagavi with a huge margin.

According to him, there is a wave in favour of the BJP in Karnataka, which will lead to the party’s victory in all the 28 Lok Sabha seats.

“With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s blessings we will win all the 28 seats, which does not seem to be difficult,” Yediyurappa said.

Belgaum seat is currently represented by Mangala Angadi, the widow of former Union Minister of State Suresh Angadi. She had won with a slender margin of over 5,000 votes in the 2021 bypoll against the Congress strongman Satish Jarkiholi, when the seat fell vacant after her husband’s death.

Shettar, a former Chief Minister, also happens to be a relative of the Angadi family and was the poll in-charge of this seat when Mangala faced the bypoll.

Shettar, who had quit the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year after being denied the ticket, rejoined his old party in January.