JOIN USShettar, who wanted to be an active politician, made his displeasure clear.
Shettar saw through the game-plan. Chief Minister Yeddyurappa did not want Shettar to emerge as another power centre in the Cabinet. He reluctantly accepted the post following intervention by the central leadership.
Today, Yeddyurappa’s fears have come true. After 18 months stint as Speaker, Shettar is now inducted into Cabinet, stronger than ever before. Of course, the Reddys have played a major role in seeing Shettar realise his dream. Shettar was the focal point of the 15-day political crisis in the BJP. Shettar, when sworn in as minister, settled scores with the CM, to some extent.
Shettar climbed the political ladder from the grassroots. He was an active member of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat and RSS in his younger days. On the professional side he began his career as a journalist and was also a noted lawyer in the Hubli Bar for several years. Politics, however, became his first love. He became the president of Hubli rural unit of the BJP in 1990.
He hails from a family that gave the first Jana Sangh legislator to the Legislative Assembly. He is the son of S S Shettar who had been elected five times to the Hubli municipality. He also became the first Jana Sangh Mayor of the municipality. His uncle Sadashiv Shettar was the first Jan Sangh leader in the South to get elected to the Assembly from Hubli in 1967.
Shettar’s break in big time politics came in 1994 when he was elected to the Assembly. He has won every poll to the Assembly since then. Shettar was leader of the Opposition in the Assembly in 1999. Shettar went on to become the state President of the BJP in 2005. He served as the Revenue Minister in the JD(S)-BJP Coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy in 2006. He has two sons - Prashant and Sankalp. Prashanth is in the US for higher studies while Sankalp is studying in the fourth semester of BE (Computer Science).