Halady Srinivas Shetty quits

Kundapur: In a fine display of reason and dignity Halady Srinivas Shetty five time MLA from Kundapur Assembly Constituency announced his retirement from electoral politics on Monday from his residence in Kundpapur.

Speaking to The Hans India Halady said "I have played value-based politics, and am satisfied with my performance in politics. I have no more aspirations from the field, but I will continue to mentor people who have worked with me for all these years to be in politics of value. 71 years is a good time to be free".

Srinivas Shetty won from the Kundapur constituency in 1999, 2004, 2008, 2013 and 2018. In 2013, he contested as an independent candidate and defeated Congress' Mallyadi Shivaram Shetty with a margin of 40,611 votes. In the 2018 assembly election, He also contested on a BJP ticket and defeated Congress candidate- Rakesh Malli with a bigger margin of 56,405 votes. He is known as the Vajpayee of Karnataka. This nickname he got for the clean politics he played.

The BJP will have to scout for a new face in Kundapur and one of the names that is making rounds in the constituency is that of Kiran Kodgi vice chairman of Food and Civil Supplies Corporation and that of former minister K Jayaprakash Hegde. Congress has already declared Molahalli Dinesh Hegde, a contractor by profession as its candidate from Kundapur. Dinesh Hegde is contesting the assembly election for the first time. The political pundits are now calculating the chances of a possible INC upper hand since BJP has lost its winning candidate.