Who is Jagadish Shettar and what led to his departure from Karnataka BJP?

HUBBALLI: Senior BJP leader and former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar on Monday joined the Congress ahead of the assembly elections in the state.AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala (Karnataka in-charge), KPCC President D K Shivakumar, and leader of the legislature party and former chief minister Siddaramaiah were among those present when he joined the party. Shettar resigned as MLA on Sunday after the BJP leadership denied him the ticket to contest from the Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency in the May 10 assembly elections. BJP tried to convince him to stay, offering him three choices — a Rajya Sabha seat, a Union ministerial berth, and a party ticket to a family member to contest the assembly polls. The 67-year-old Shettar still went ahead with his resignation.Jagadish Shettar is son of SS Shivappa Shivamurthappa Shettar, who was the first Janasangh mayor in South India. He has three siblings.He was elected as a member of Hubli-Dharwad City Corporation five times consecutively.On December 17, 1955, Shettar was born in Kerur, which is located in the Badami taluk of the Bagalkot district. His birth took place in the home town of his mother, Basavanemma.His primary and secondary education was completed at Hubli Bassel Mission Primary School and Bassel Mission Higher Secondary School. He received his BCom Degree from KLES' JG College of Commerce and his LLB from Hubballi-Dharwad's JSS College. Like his father, Jagadish began his professional life as an advocate. In 1984, he wed Shilpa, a native of Badami taluk's Aihole village.Jagadish’s uncle Sadashiva Shettar was an MLA from the Hubli constituency representing Janasangh in 1967. Hailing from such a political background, and though he was involved in APVP and RSS activities, Jagadish was away from politics and was seriously involved in practice as an advocate for about a decade.However, former Union minister Anant Kumar, who was looking for a Lingayat leader to attract the community towards BJP, convinced Jagadish to enter politics and made him president of the BJP unit of Hubli Rural Constituency in 1990 and became Dharwad district BJP president in 1994. Later held various responsibilities like state BJP president.In the 1994 assembly election, Shettar ran for the first time in Hubli Rural Constituency and emerged victorious, defeating Basavaraj Bommai, who is now the chief minister of Karnataka, by a margin of 16,000 votes.He has been elected six times consecutively from the same constituency which is renamed as Hubballi-Dharwad Central since delimitation in 2008. He has also held portfolios like revenue, rural development, and industry as a minister and has worked as a speaker of the Karnataka legislative assembly. He also worked as chief minister of state from 2012-13.He was also involved in movements like national flag hoisting in Idgah Maidan, bringing legislative sessions to Belagavi, South Western Railway headquarter to Hubballi, Kalasa-Banduri etc.He has two sons — Prashant and Sankalp.