Kishore Kumar Kundapura declines felicitation by BJP Dakshina Kannada-Udupi in-charge Uday Kumar Shetty at the programme held for the installation of the party’s new district president Kuthyar Naveen Shetty in Udupi on Monday.
| Photo Credit: UMESH S. SHETTIGAR

Outgoing president of the BJP Udupi district unit, Kishore Kumar Kundapura, on Monday said he was pained by the manner in which the party “removed” him from his post before his term was completed.

Speaking at a programme organised for the installation of the party’s new district president, Kuthyaru Naveen Shetty, at Udupi, Mr. Kundapura said people have been asking him if he had been removed from his post and that the word ‘removed’ connotes many things, including punishment for being dishonest, he said.

Mr. Kundapura said he knew that “caste, money power, popularity, etc., were the considerations to choose a candidate for election to the assembly or parliament, but was not aware the same would apply while choosing the district president, who has to build a strong base for the party, too.”

“I have not collected funds from anyone but spent from my pocket to conduct party activities. I have served the party with complete dedication and honesty,” he said.

He said that, out of his 14-month tenure as the district BJP president, he could confidently call himself one for only about eight months.

Stating that he rose from the grassroots level, Mr. Kundapura said he managed the Kundapura party office from 1999 to 2018 and also unsuccessfully contested the 2013 Assembly elections on a BJP ticket from Kundapura. After he became the BJP district president, Kota Srinivas Poojary got elected from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru with an unexpectedly high margin in the Lok Sabha elections.

A similar case was the election of the Southwest Graduates’ Constituency to the Legislative Council, which was contested by a local rebel candidate, as well as the by-election to the Council from the local bodies’ constituency. In every instance, he led the party to victory along with other office bearers and cadres, Mr. Kundapura said.

‘No handing over’

Regarding the handover of charge to the new district president, he said: “There is no meaning in organising a programme to hand over the charge. It [the post] was already snatched from me, and when I do not have any power, I cannot hand it over either.”

He added that the BJP State general secretary, V. Sunil Kumar, would install the new president. Mr. Kundapura even declined to receive a shawl presented by the party Dakshina Kannada-Udupi in-charge, Uday Kumar Shetty.