Bengaluru, Jan 25 (IANS): Karnataka's Leader of the Opposition R. Ashoka on Thursday maintained that the return of former CM Jagadish Shettar to BJP was not 'Operation Lotus'.

"After seeing the appeasement of Muslims and neglect of Hindus by the Congress government, he has made a decision of returning to the party," the BJP leader told reporters here.

Ashoka argued that Shettar grew up through the Sangh Parivar and now joined the party "which made appeasement of Muslims its primary agenda" and was never able to strike a chord with the system there.

"He was suffocated with the plight meted out to Hindus in the Congress. We welcomed the return of Shettar back to his home wholeheartedly. The Pran Prathistha in Ayodhya, the victory in assembly elections of three states and other factors will draw more leaders towards the BJP,” Ashoka claimed.

"Further there will only be ‘Congress chodo’ trend. The Trinamool Congress headed by West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have dubbed the Congress as worthless. The Congress would be thrown out of New Delhi as well. The grand old party will wither away in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections," he claimed.

"The Congress leaders used to claim that BJP leaders joined them. Now, they will be silent. They do not have leadership and that is why the Congress is trying to pull our leaders," he said.

BJP state President B.Y. Vijayendra stated that Shettar had joined the party without any conditions after holding discussion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and former CM B.S. Yediyurappa.

Yediyurappa stated that Shettar had contributed to the BJP in the capacity of the CM and LoP and his return to the party was sought by the party workers.

"With his arrival, we have strengthened the party in Karnataka to achieve our goal of winning more than 25 seats out of 28 constituencies."