The return of former chief minister and six-time MLA Jagadish Shettar, 68, to the BJP fold following a nine-month stint with the Congress has come as a shot in the arm to the BJP in the Lingayat belt in northern Karnataka ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

BJP sources said Shettar, who belongs to the Lingayat community, has been “guaranteed” a Lok Sabha poll ticket by the BJP top brass while reinducting him into the party.

Shettar is likely to be the BJP’s candidate for the Belagavi parliamentary seat where the party does not have a strong candidate since the death of its four-time MP Suresh Angadi in 2020. He could also be fielded from Dharwad or Haveri.

“There has been an assurance that Shettar will be fielded by the party in the Lok Sabha polls. The seat was not discussed but the state leadership is keen on fielding him from Belagavi,” said BJP sources.

After rejoining the BJP on January 25, Shettar had claimed that he was doing it without any conditions. “The issues before the country is unity, protection of the country and development and PM Modi has been working over the last decade to strengthen the country and our wish is that he should be PM again and that the BJP must become stronger,” he had then said.

Shettar’s return would however facilitate the BJP’s search for strong candidates in some key Lingayat-dominated constituencies in north Karnataka.

Following the demise of Suresh Angadi, the BJP fielded his wife Mangala Angadi in the Belagavi bypoll in 2021. She managed to win the seat with a slim margin of 5240 votes, beating local Congress strongman Sathish Jarkiholi, a Scheduled Tribe leader, due to the sympathy factor. However, the loss of ground by the BJP in Belagavi with the deaths of other local Lingayat leaders like Umesh Katti and Anand Mamani, coupled with the exit of the party’s ex-deputy CM Laxman Savadi to the Congress, had put the BJP on a shaky wicket in the Lingayat-dominated region in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

Shettar’s return is expected to strengthen the BJP’s chances in Belagavi, although he hails from the neighbouring Hubbali region.

Shettar’s son Sankalp Shettar is married to late Suresh Angadi and current MP Mangala Angadi’s daughter Shradha Angadi. Shettar’s return to the BJP has given the BJP the option of fielding him or his daughter-in-law Shradha Angadi in Belagavi.

With the Congress considering Jarkiholi’s candidature from the seat again, there are, however, concerns in the BJP that a “sympathy wave” for him for his 2021 loss may help the former wrest the seat from it after two decades.

According to BJP sources, Shettar’s return was a result of backdoor efforts by some of his close associates in the party, including ex-minister Shankar Munekoppa, who persuaded him while highlighting his family’s history as part of the RSS and BJP.

Subsequently, ex-CM and Lingayat veteran B S Yediyurappa and his son B Y Vijayendra, the state BJP president, reached out to him.

“Over the last eight to nine months the BJP workers and the state MLAs and ex-MLAS and leaders wanted me to return to the BJP. The national leaders also said that I should return,” Shettar said while rejoining the BJP.

“Initially, Shettar’s condition was that he should be allowed to contest the Dharwad seat by the BJP. He was told that he should not pose any pre-conditions and that the decision for contesting the Lok Sabha polls should be left to the party high command, ” BJP sources said.

The Dharwad Lok Sabha seat is currently held by Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, a known rival of Shettar, who has benefited from the latter’s Lingayat support base to win the seat thrice consecutively since 2009.

Shettar had obliquely blamed Joshi and BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, both Brahmin leaders, for the denial of the BJP ticket to him from the Hubbali-Dharwad Central seat in the May 2023 Assembly polls, which had then led to his switch to the Congress that fielded him from the seat but he lost to the BJP debutant Mahesh Tenginakai.

BJP sources said Shettar may contest the Dharwad seat in the event of Joshi switching to a new constituency like Uttar Kannada — where the BJP has an issue with its five-time MP Ananth Kumar Hegde who had been unwell for nearly three years of his current term.

Shettar may also be the candidate from the Haveri seat with a sizeable Lingayat population, where the sitting BJP MP Shivakumar Udasi, the son of former BJP minister C M Udasi, has indicated a possible exit from the LS seat to enter the Assembly poll fray on account of his father’s death.

The process of Shettar’s return to the BJP resumed following the party high command’s clearance, but it was kept under wraps.

BJP sources said his meeting had been scheduled for April 24-25 midnight with Union Home Minister Amit Shah but was cancelled due to the latter’s engagements. A meeting was then held the next morning at 11 am and Shettar’s return was concluded within an hour of the meeting with Shah, sources said.

“It is a sign of lack of leaders and desperation of the BJP that they are making efforts to get Shettar to rejoin the BJP,” state Congress president D K Shivakumar said on the eve of Shettar’s move.

After Shettar’s return to the BJP, Shivakumar said, “Shettar had joined the Congress after his disillusionment with the internal affairs of the BJP. He had even made big accusations against the BJP. We had accommodated him as an MLC in spite of his loss by 35,000 votes in the Assembly election. Despite BJP trying to establish contact with him for the last 2-3 months, Shettar was determined to stay in the party till a couple of days before.”

The BJP is reportedly wooing another key former party leader from Belagavi Laxman Savadi, who had also switched to the Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls after being denied a party ticket. Savadi, who is currently a Congress MLA from Athani, has denied being approached by the BJP.

“Savadi is a senior Congress leader and an asset for the party. He said he came on his own to the Congress and he would love to work with the Congress,” Shivakumar said regarding the possibility of Savadi’s exit.

The BJP is also considering getting its former minister and mining scam accused G Janardhan Reddy, who is the lone MLA of his Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha party. The party reckons Reddy’s return may benefit its prospects in the Ballari region.