Jagadish Shivappa Shettar (born 17 December 1955) is an Indian politician, who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 2012 to 2013. He is currently serving as Member of Karnataka Legislative Council. He has subsequently served as Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He also served as the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly during 2008–2009. He is a member of the Indian National Congress. Earlier he was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which he quit on being denied the MLA ticket in 2023. He represented Hubli-Dharwad Central Vidhan Sabha seat, which he resigned in 2023 before the elections.
On 20 August 2019, he was inducted as the Cabinet Minister for Large and medium scale industries excluding sugar and Public Enterprise department in the BJP Government led by B. S. Yediyurappa. As the cabinet was being dissolved after the resignation of B. S. Yediyurappa, he also further announced he won't be part of any cabinet in the future.
Early life
Shettar was born on 17 December 1955 in Kerur village of Badami Taluk in Bagalkote district (formerly Bijapur district), Karnataka. His father is Sri. S.S. Shettar and his mother is Smt. Basavenamma. His father, S.S. Shettar, a senior activist of the Jana Sangh, was elected five times to the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation and became the first Jana Sangh Mayor of Hubli-Dharwad. His uncle Sadashiv Shettar was the first Jana Sangh leader in South India to get elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He was elected from Hubli City in 1967. Shettar holds BCom and LLB degrees and was a practicing lawyer for 20 years at the Hubli Bar. He married Smt. Shilpa and the couple have 2 sons - Prashant and Sankalp. He belongs to the Banajiga sub-sect of Lingayat community.
Political career
In 2008, following the BJP victory in Karnataka assembly elections, Shettar was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the Karnataka legislative assembly. However, he resigned from this post in 2009 and was inducted into the cabinet of B.S. Yeddyurappa as Minister for Rural development and Panchayat Raj.
In July 2012, several BJP MLAs owing allegiance to B.S. Yeddyurappa called for the replacement of D.V. Sadananda Gowda with Shettar. After much turmoil, the BJP High Command agreed to make him the Chief minister. He was sworn in on 12 July 2012.
2013 Assembly elections
Ahead of assembly polls which were held in May 2013, BJP declared Shettar as its Chief Ministerial candidate for Karnataka state.
Shettar resigned as Chief Minister as BJP failed to retain its power. He submitted his resignation to the Governor of Karnataka on 8 May 2013. BJP suffered a big loss in the May 2013 assembly elections as the Congress wrested Karnataka.
Post elections
Jagdish Shettar was elected as the leader of BJP's legislative party and Leader of opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
Resignation from BJP
He announced his resignation from the Bharatiya Janata Party and also as the Member of Legislative Assembly after he was denied a ticket for the upcoming assembly election on 16 April 2023. Shettar joined the Indian National Congress thereafter, in the presence of INC leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Siddaramaiah, and assured that he would be contesting the elections in Hubli-Dharwad Central from the Congress Party.
2023 elections
In the 2023 Karnataka Legislative elections, he contested from the Congress and lost the election against BJP's Mahesh Tenginakai by a margin of 35,000 votes. He had represented the Hubli-Dharwad Central constituency for over 3 decades which he lost by a vast margin.