The Bharatiya Janata Party dropped its six-time MP from Karnataka, Anant Kumar Hegde, as it announced its fifth list of candidates for the Lok Saba election.
The party instead fielded former assembly speaker and six-time MLA Vishweshwar Hegde Kaggeri from Uttara Kannada constituency.
The fact that the BJP took this decision days after Anant Kumar’s “change constitution” remark sparked a massive row has led many to believe that the party is not going to reward those politicians who make off-the-cuff remarks.
Hegde is seen as a poster boy of Hindutva in Karnataka whose political rise was associated with the Ram Mandir movement in the 1990s.
Despite being not involved in active politics for over three years, Hegde has left the BJP red-faced with his controversial remarks.
On March 11, while addressing a gathering at Karwar in Karnataka, Hegde had said the BJP needs a two-third majority in both houses of the Parliament to amend the Constitution and "set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress".
"If the Constitution has to be amended —the Congress fundamentally distorted the Constitution by forcefully filling unnecessary things in it, especially by bringing in laws that were aimed at suppressing the Hindu society — if all of this has to be changed, it is not possible with this (current) majority," the BJP MP said.
Opposition slammed the BJP over its MP's remarks, and the party distanced itself, saying that Hegde's remarks "are his personal views".
On December 26, 2017 during his tenure as the Union Minister of State, Hedge said that the BJP came to power to change the Constitution triggering a nationwide uproar. Later, he had to apologise for his comment.
Anant Kumar Hegde, 55, is from the Brahmin community and relies on the hardcore Hindutva politics of coastal Karnataka to carry the day in elections.
Also read | BJP drops Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit, picks Cong turncoat Jitin Prasada; retains Maneka