In its latest list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dropped Ananth Kumar Hegde from the Uttara Kannada constituency in Karnataka, a seat he has represented six times, following repeated gaffes from the leader.
The Uttara Kannada ticket has instead gone to Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, a non-controversial party loyalist and former Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly. Kageri had lost the Karnataka Assembly elections last year. Another leader who was defeated in the 2023 polls has been given a ticket for Lok Sabha elections — Dr K Sudhakar, former minister in the Basavaraj Bommai government, who will be contesting from the Chikkaballapur seat.
Kageri had contested from the Sirsi Assembly seat in Karnataka elections and lost to Bheemanna Naik of the Congress, while Sudhakar lost to Pradeep Eshwar, also from the Congress, in the Chikkaballapur Assembly segment.
The latest list has dealt the biggest setback to Hegde, known to be controversy’s favourite child. The leader has often put the BJP in a spot with his controversial speeches, the latest being his statement that if the BJP wins more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, “the Indian Constitution will be rewritten… to save the Hindus”.
The BJP was forced to clarify that the statement was Hegde’s personal view and that the party would seek an explanation from the leader. It is not clear whether an explanation was eventually sought by the central leadership, but it’s evident the party is done putting up with Hegde’s howlers.
Another highlight of the BJP list for the last four seats in Karnataka is the nomination of former chief minister Jagdish Shettar who had left the party in May 2023, just before Assembly elections, only to return in January this year. Shettar was reportedly apprehensive about contesting from Belgavi since he does not belong to the Panchamsali sect, a predominant sect of the Lingayats in the Belgavi Lok Sabha constituency. However, veteran BJP leader BS Yediyurappa convinced him not to refuse the Belgavi nomination.
A section of the BJP in Belgavi had threatened to work against the party if Shettar was given a ticket as they consider him to be an outsider. Posters saying ‘Go Back Shettar’ had also surfaced in the constituency.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, Shettar was asked to step aside by the BJP high command while selecting candidates for the Huballi-Dharwad seat. An upset Shettar then jumped ship to the Congress, which gave him a ticket from the seat. But Shettar lost the election.
He now replaces Mangala Suresh Angadi, wife of former railway minister Suresh Angadi, who passed away mid-term. She was elected in a bypoll following his death.
In the Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha constituency, the party has fielded Dr K Sudhakar, former Karnataka health minister in the Bommai cabinet. Sudhakar had also lost the election from the Chikkaballapur Assembly constituency. He was among the 17 MLAs from the Congress and JDS who shifted allegiance to the BJP in 2019. He attributed his defeat in the Assembly elections to “last-minute political conspiracy hatched by the Congress and the JDS”.
Sudhakar’s nomination dashes the hopes of former Union minister and former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda, who was assured of being given the Chikkaballapur ticket after he was dislodged from the Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency. The Bangalore North ticket was instead given to Shobha Karandlaje, who was shifted to the city from her earlier seat Udupi-Chikkamagalur. Gowda had earlier said he would quit the party if not given the ticket, but later said he would remain loyal to the party and will work towards “purifying it”.
The BJP has also re-nominated Raja Amareshwara Naik from the Raichur (ST) constituency. A former Congressman, Naik had served as an MLA for over two terms between 1989 and 2004. However, in 2013, he joined the JDS, but a year later, decided to join the BJP. He had successfully contested from the Raichur constituency on a BJP ticket in 2019.
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