Jagadish Shivappa Shettar was the 21st Chief Minister of Karnataka. Jagadish Shettar was sworn in as Chief Minister on the 12th of July 2012. His tenure as Chief Minister was short-lived as he resigned on the 8th of May 2013.
Shettar’s Early Life
Born in 1953, Jagadish Shettar belongs to a small village called Kerur located in Bagalkot, Karnataka. Politics was in the family as his father, S.S. Shettar is a well-known politician.
Politics and the routes that lead towards the Chief Ministers chair were well-known in the family. With his uncle and father being politicians, it is surprising that Shettar chose to get an education before delving head first into politics.
His Entry into Politics
The RSS, ABVP, Jana Sangha and Bharatiya Janata Party were the political parties that the Shettar family chose to align themselves with. Jagadish Shivappa Shettar’s father, S. S. Shettar was elected to be the Mayor for Hubli – Dharwad and is a well-known activist for the Jana Sangha Party.
Jagadish Shivappa Shettar’s uncle Sadashiv Shettar has been written about in the pages of history as the first leader from the Jana Sangha party to be elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
He has two degrees, a Bachelors in commerce and a law degree. He practiced as a lawyer at Hubli for nearly 20 years before politics ate into his work.
He was an activist and a politician in the making when he was involved with the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) presumably so, as his family members were aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was also a member of the RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
He rose through the ranks within Bharatiya Janata Party quickly and was elected to be the President of the Hubli Rural unit in 1990. In 1994 he was given the bigger honor of being the President of the Dharwad district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
He is extremely popular in the Hubli – Dharwad constituency as he was elected to be a member of the legislative assembly from the constituency a total of four consecutive times with the first time in 1994.
In the year 1996, Jagadish Shivappa Shettar was trusted to be the Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka. During S. M. Krishna’s tenure as Chief Minister, Jagadish Shivappa Shettar was the leader of the opposition as BJP failed to win the State elections.
The year 2005 proved significant to Shettar as he was elected to the prestigious post of President of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the coalition government formed by the uneasy alliance between Janata Dal Secular and Bharatiya Janata Party, Shettar was given the portfolio of Revenue.
He was given a new post when Bharatiya Janata Party won the state elections in 2008. He was unanimously elected as the speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Jagadish Shivappa Shettar for some reason resigned from the post and was immediately given the portfolio of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj in the B. S. Yeddyurappa government.
When B. S. Yeddyurappa resigned from his post as Chief Minister, Shettar and D. V. Sadananda Gowda were in the running to be the next Chief Minister of Karnataka.
D.V. Sadananda Gowda was elected to the post of Chief Minister in 2011. After the unrest following the resignation of D.V. Sadananda Gowda, the high command at Bharatiya Janata Party elected Jagadish Shivappa Shettar to the post of Chief Minister.
During his tenure as a politician, Shettar has been influential in setting up the headquarters of the Southern Railway System of India in Hubli-Dharwad, Khalasa Banduri project and the setting up of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belgaum. His involvement with the projects reflected on his interest in developing Karnataka as one whole entity instead of focusing funds and energy on the capital of Karnataka, Bangalore.
Shettar was nominated as the Chief Ministerial candidate by BJP ahead of the May 2013 elections for Karnataka. Bharatiya Janata Party performed dismally as an entity in the election.
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