Karwar: Six time MP Anantkumar Hegde has been denied ticket by BJP in Uttar Kannada constituency for the present Lok Sabha elections. Former Speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly Kageri Vishweshwar Hegde has replaced him for the contest.

Anantkumar Hegde had contested seven times continuously from the constituency and had been elected six times. But he disappeared from the scene after previous Lok Sabha polls and to come back only two months ago. He continued his communally provocative statements which created more controversies and even gave a statement of his party changing the Constitution by winning 400 seats. This created a new controversy at national level. He was absent for all campaigns in the last Lok Sabha polls, even for Modi’s public meet in Ankola.

Kageri Vishweshwar Hegde too has been elected 6 times for Vidhan Sabha and faced a single defeat in the last polls. Coming from RSS background, he has been in politics since 1999. Chakravarti Soolibele, Journalist Hariprakash Konemane were also initially named for the ticket. However BJP high command has ended all speculations by granting the ticket to Kageri who is contesting Lok Sabha elections for the first time.

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Ramangara (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday hinted at cracks and squabbling within the BJP and the JD(S), as he gave credit to the leaders of these parties for the defeat of JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the Channapatna assembly bypoll.

Congress candidate C P Yogeeshwara won in Channapatna bypoll with a margin of 25,413 votes against his nearest rival and NDA candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy, as results were announced on Saturday.

The Congress party swept all the three assembly constituencies in Karnataka, namely Channapatna, Sandur and Shiggaon, which went for bypolls.

Nikhil Kumaraswamy is the son of Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy and grandson of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. In September last year, JD(S) joined the NDA led by BJP.

“Many people from across the parties have helped us in this election (Channapatna). Congress had only 16,000 votes in the previous assembly election. It increased in the Lok Sabha election,” Shivakumar told reporters here.

According to him, many people from the JD(S) and the BJP supported the Congress. “If the BJP and the JD(S) leaders had not supported us directly or indirectly, we wouldn’t have got so many votes. I congratulate them,” Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, said.

He quipped that the JD(S), which had 19 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, has now reduced to 18.

Hailing the electorate, the Deputy CM said this was people’s verdict in favour of C P Yogeeshwara to develop Channapatna constituency.

There was no immediate reaction from the BJP or the JD(S) on it.