The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, April 11, announced Yashpal Suvarna as the party's candidate from the Udupi seat in the state Assembly elections. Yashpal Suvarna is a BJP leader who made incendiary statements during the Karnataka hijab ban controversy. In March 2022, during the hijab protests in Karnataka, he had called the protesting Muslim students who moved the court over the hijab issue "anti-nationals" and "members of a terrorist organisation".
Yashpal is the vice president of the College Development Committee of Udupi Government PU Girls’ College where the hijab controversy began in December 2021. After the protests spread to other parts of the state, the Karnataka government banned students from wearing clothings that "disturbs equality, integrity and public order”.
Yashpal's elevation as the BJP candidate in Udupi marks a steady rise through the party ranks. Yashpal was selected as the National General Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party Backward Classes Morcha in April 2021.
In 2005, Yashpal was accused of assaulting a Muslim father and son duo alleging that they were transporting calves.
The incident occurred on March 13 2005 in Adi Udupi when Hajabba and Hasanabba were stripped, paraded naked and brutally assaulted by members of the Hindutva group Hindu Yuva Sene. The public humiliation included the publication of a photograph, for which they were forced to pose, on the front pages of leading Kannada newspapers.
The incident sparked massive protests from the Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike (Forum for Communal Harmony) and the issue was raised in the Karnataka Assembly by Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Sriram Reddy and independent MLA Jayaprakash Reddy.
Yashpal, who was accused in the case and named in the chargesheet filed by the Udupi police, was acquitted by a fast-track court in Udupi in 2008.
By elevating Yashpal Suvarna, the BJP sidelined sitting MLA Raghupathi Bhat, who was the MLA from Udupi thrice. Raghupathi Bhat was the president of the College Development Committee of the Udupi Government PU Girls' College, where the hijab controversy began. Though he suggested that the hijab issue was part of an "international conspiracy to destroy India's communal harmony", he stopped short of vilifying the protesting students.
Raghupathi Bhat said that he was surprised by the BJP's decision. "There was no communication till Tuesday night that this would happen. I am disappointed by the way it was conveyed," he said speaking to reporters in Udupi.
The BJP has also picked new faces to contest in Kaup and Kundapur constituencies. Gurmi Suresh Shetty has replaced Lalaji Mendon as the Kapu candidate while Kiran Kumar Kodgi has replaced Halady Srinivas Shetty as the Kundapur candidate for the BJP. The party had won all five constituencies in Udupi district in 2018.