Dumping him, the party has instead picked up a former Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri, a strong Hindutva propagator but who is much less confrontational, and known for his soft manner. Kageri had lost the 2023 Assembly elections but he knew he could ill afford a four year wait for the next Assembly election.

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Kageri will now take on Dr Anjali Nimbalkar, a defeated Congress MLA from Khanapur. Interestingly, both are contesting parliamentary polls for the first time. While Dr Anjali belongs to the neighbouring Belagavi district, Kageri is a native of Uttara Kannada district.

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After over four years of relative silence , Hegde had hogged the limelight with a stinging diatribe against the Muslim community, a personal attack against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and claims that once the BJP won the parliamentary polls, it would change the Constitution.

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The last, was the most damaging statement of all, as it was a not so subtle pointer that the Constitution would be rewritten to favour the majority Hindus. The state leaders quickly distanced themselves from Hegde. They termed it Hegde’s personal opinion and not the party’s.

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The sitting MP's continuous attacks on the Muslims was not liked either, strangely enough by BJP leaders; few know that at least one to two percent of the Muslim vote does go to the BJP in some constituencies in Uttara Kannada.

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Muslims, it must be said, have openly expressed their preference for Dr C.N.Manjunath who is the BJP candidate in Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency.

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Similarly, the personal attacks on the Siddaramaiah ‘in singular’ was not liked by Kuruba leaders within the BJP because the community voters don't like to hear such comments about him, even if he belongs to a rival party.

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Hedge's speeches which won him a huge following among hard-core Hindutva propagators, did however damage the party' s image, the BJP’s brains trust believed. Hence, the royal ignore that saw him totally sidelined.

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The BJP high command then began scouting for a suitable candidate who is a soft ‘Hindutva vaadi’ but acceptable to all the communities. Ultimately, they zeroed in on Kageri in place of Hegde as both of them belonged to the Havyaka sect in the Brahmin community which dominates Sirsi , Siddapura, Yellapura and Ankola in Uttara Kannada district.Insiders say no-one was surprised over the announcement of Kageri's name as they knew that Hegde would not get a ticket.

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Even Hegde had hinted as much when he talked about retiring from the electoral politics.

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The BJP had in the early days, backed Hegde to the hilt, making him the union minister but he failed to prove his ministerial chops and was dropped from the ministry. Since then he himself had dropped off the radar, only surfacing to stake claim for the ticket from Uttara Kannada.

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If he had secured it, it would have been for a record fifth time. A party insider said he may have even been given the ticket if he had changed his attitude and controlled his tongue. But having failed to, Hegde paid the price, the insider said.