Bengaluru, 15 March

 Former chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said party leader Jagadish Shettar will contest the Lok Sabha election from Belagavi.

“Shettar met me yesterday (on Thursday. He was not willing to contest from Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency. I convinced him to contest from there,” Yediyurappa, a member of BJP Parliamentary Board, told reporters here.

BJP is yet to officially announce his candidature for the seat. Yediyurappa said there is no doubt that BJP will win the election from Belagavi with a huge margin. According to him, there is a wave in favour of BJP in Karnataka, which will lead to the party's victory in all the 28 Lok Sabha seats.

Belagavi seat is currently represented by Mangala Angadi, the widow of former Union minister of State Suresh Angadi. She had won with a slender margin of over 5,000 votes in the 2021 bypoll against Congress strongman Satish Jarkiholi, when the seat fell vacant after her husband's death.

Shettar, a former chief minister, also happens to be a relative of the Angadi family and was the poll in-charge of this seat when Mangala faced the bypoll.

Shettar, who had quit the BJP to join Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year after being denied the ticket, rejoined his old party in January.