Congress leader Jagadish Shettar, who is a candidate from Karnataka's Hubli-Dharwad-Central constituency, defended LoP Siddaramaiah's "Corrupt Lingayat Chief Minister" remark and said that the comment was aimed at Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and not on all Lingayat CMs.
"His comment was only on the present CM Bommai and not all Lingayat CMs. He did not comment on other Lingayat CMs", Mr Shettar told ANI.
Union Minister Pralhad Joshi demanded an apology from former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over his remark where he mentioned that 'Lingayat CM had done corruption' in the state adding that it is an insult to Karnataka.
Pralhad Joshi said, "The statement where he mentioned that Lingayat Chief Ministers are corrupt is condemnable. This is an insult to Karnataka. We demand that Siddaramaiah should apologise for this".
"Now after making comments they are trying to clarify. But we all know what is inside their hearts so that that is only coming out," he added.
Pralhad Joshi also mentioned that the Congress party is busy making a false image of the BJP for giving ill-treatment to the Lingayat community.
Earlier, Mr Shettar said, "Many Lingayat leaders left BJP. Hurting my self-respect means hurting the people of the region, which will affect the vote bank of the BJP. The people of the state are wise enough not to cast their vote for BJP."
"Byadagi in Haveri district is not in my constituency. There are so many Congress candidates who are asking me to campaign in their constituencies. BJP senior leaders of the Lingayat community have said that they are going to join the Congress and hundreds of followers within one or two days will also join," he said.
Mr Shettar became the second senior leader from the Lingayat community to leave the ruling BJP and join Congress in less than a week. Earlier, former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi joined the Congress.
BJP has fielded Mahesh Tenginkai against the Mr Shettar for the seat in the upcoming polls.
The 224-seat Assembly polls are slated to take place in a single phase on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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