Although the Lok Sabha elections are about three months away, the lobbying for ticket for the Udupi-Chikmagalur parliamentary seat has started in all parties.
After the formation of the Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency, D.V. Sadananda Gowda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the seat by defeating former Minister K. Jayaprakash Hegde of the Congress by a margin of 27,018 votes in the 2009 parliamentary elections. Mr. Gowda secured 4,01,441 votes, while Mr. Hegde polled 3,74,423 votes.
Gopal Poojary, president of the Udupi District Congress Committee (DCC) told The Hindu that the Udupi DCC has recommended only one name, that of Mr. Hegde to the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.
However, the Chikmagalur DCC has submitted three names.
