BJP leaders holding a meeting in the party office in Udupi on Monday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The BJP said on Monday that Udupi district in-charge Minister Laxmi R. Hebbalkar not campaigning for K. Jayaprakash Hegde, the Congress candidate for Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency, indicated that the grand old party has lost hopes of winning the elections in the constituency.

Speaking at a meeting of BJP leaders at the party office in Udupi on Monday, Kishore Kumar Kundapura, president of the Udupi district unit of the BJP, said that Ms. Hebbalkar had not even once campaigned for Mr. Hegde since the Congress announced him as the candidate for the constituency.

Calling Mr. Hegde as a party hopper, Mr. Kundapura said that the Congress faced such a dearth of candidates to field in the elections that it issued the ticket to Mr. Hegde whom the Congress had expelled for contesting as a rebel candidate in the elections to the Legislative Council from Dakshina Kannada-Udupi local bodies’ constituency in 2015.

“It is unfortunate that the Congress workers have been made to seek votes in favour of a person whom the party had suspended once for anti-party activity,” Mr. Kundapura said.

The Congress had expelled Mr. Hegde for contesting against its official candidate K. Prathapchandra Shetty in the Legislative Council elections.

Mr. Kundapura said that Mr. Hegde had criticised the senior Congress leader late Oscar Fernandes for expelling him from the party. Now he (Mr. Hegde) has garlanded the statue of late Fernandes for the sake of votes.

The BJP leader claimed that the Congress has fielded Mr. Hegde for the Lok Sabha elections notwithstanding the opposition by its own party workers. Hence the Congress has erred in the selection of its candidate.

“Now Mr. Hegde is seeking votes like an Independent candidate without dropping the names of any Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,” Mr. Kundapura alleged.

The BJP leader said that voters in the constituency are mature enough to understand the plight of the Congress.

Mr. Kundapura said that Mr. Hegde has twisted a statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying that the BJP had promised to credit ₹15 lakh to the bank accounts of each individual in the country. But in reality, Mr. Modi had said that if the black money of Congress leaders stashed away in Swiss banks is brought back to India each individual can get ₹15 lakh. But the Congress is twisting the statement for its political gains, he said.

The BJP had called the meeting to review its campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections.