General Secy B.L. Santhosh will 'destroy BJP in Karnataka', Shettar lashes out

Hubballi (Karnataka), April 18 (IANS) Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who quit the ruling BJP to join the Congress, on Tuesday lashed out at the BJP's national General Secretary B.L. Santhosh, squarely holding him responsible for his exit.

Addressing reporters here, Shettar said that that the BJP is losing leaders one after the other and is not sure whether it wants to come to power.

"B.L. Santhosh was made in-charge of elections in other states... nowhere could the BJP win. In spite of it, he had been made in-charge of Karnataka. This is only being done to rout the party in the state," he alleged.

"In the BJP, they say that individual is not important. But, one individual has become important and he had kept everything under his control. Santhosh will ruthlessly trample those who are not in his league. His protege Mahesh Tenginakayi has got the ticket for my constituency from the BJP. He could have been made a Rajya Sabha member... to get him ticket, I was humiliated and thrown out by Santhosh," Shettar alleged.

He questioned "why it was necessary to humiliate him and unleash drama for one single individual whom Santhosh considers as his close associate". It was a pre-planned moved of Santhosh, he said.

"There is a conspiracy to finish off BJP in the state. Even (veteran leader B.S.) Yediyurappa is in a helpless state. There is suffocation in all district offices. State President Nalin Kumar Kateel is a close associate of Santhosh. Kateel will act as per his directions," Shettar claimed.

The statements of Shettar has assumed importance in the wake of Congress making an attempt to project that Lingayat leadership in BJP is being finished off.

Meanwhile, Tenginakayi said that he got the ticket for being loyal worker of the BJP and not because he is close to Santhosh.

He claimed he was Shettar's protege in the last three decades in the BJP and he saw Shettar as his guru.