“BJP is trying its best to defeat me. But it will not be successful. BJP leaders should understand that Karnataka is not Gujarat and Hubli is not Ahmedabad.
Addressing a Congress campaign rally in Belagavi on Thursday, Mr Shettar said the BJP was running a negative campaign targeting him.
“Mobs of BJP workers are camping in Hubli with the sole aim of defeating me. Many national and state level leaders are landing in the city. His only agenda is to defeat Jagadish Shettar. They say so openly. His campaign is not for the BJP candidate from Hubli Dharwad Central Assembly seat, but to defeat Jagadish Shettar. Such negative campaign methods may suit them, but not me. When I go to campaign for Congress candidates, I seek votes for them and not to defeat their opponents,” Mr Shettar said.
Mr Shettar said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had tried to join the Congress in 2012, when BS Yediyurappa’s KJP and B. There was a rift in the state BJP after Sriramulu formed the BSR Congress. “Mr. Bommai is now abusing the Congress as a cesspool. Does he accept that he was trying to enter this party in 2012, which he now calls Nala, because he felt that his There is no room for that?” Mr. Shettar said.
He said that he left BJP because his self-respect was hurt and he joined Congress because his well-wishers advised him to join Congress, which is another national party with a century-long history.
At the meeting held at Mahant Bhavan in Belagavi North, Shettar sought votes for Asif (Raju) Sait and other party candidates. A large number of Lingayat leaders attended the meeting.
VS Sadhunavar, former MLA Firoz Sait, District Congress Committee President Vinay Navalgatti and others were present.