The BJP face in hijab row gets ticket from sensitive Udupi, sitting MLA dropped

A Brahmin leader who is a three-time winner from Udupi, Bhat was confident of getting the ticket again. Sources in the party claimed that this time, though, there was a demand from the coastal region to give a ticket to an OBC leader, who has worked at the grassroots. Suvarna is a Mogaveera, an OBC group. His central role in the hijab row, as vice-president of the Development Committee of Udupi Government PU Girls’ College, only cemented his credentials.

Till Tuesday morning, Bhat was confident of getting a ticket and said the party would not ignore a loyal party worker like him and, if it did, he would decide what to do. Minutes after the BJP high command announced the ticket in Delhi, he told The Indian Express he had no reason to be unhappy. “I have worked for the party and it has recognised my contribution. I am grateful,” Bhat said.

Asked whether the disappointment of Bhat’s supporters could hurt him, Suvarna said he was confident of winning their trust. “In Udupi, the party is more important than the individual. Once the ticket is announced, everyone will work for the party and I am confident about it.”

Who is Yashpal Suvarna

The vice-president of the Development Committee of Udupi Government PU Girls’ College, which was at the heart of the hijab row, Suvarna had been among the most hardline voices during the whole controversy.

At one time, he called the six students who had moved court over the matter “terrorists”. Suvarna says he continues to stand by his statement, as those who do not follow the law of the land are “anti-nationals”.

A party source said Suvarna’s actions – including “providing saffron shawls to students to counter the girls seeking to wear the hijab” — ensured that the controversy lingered and spread to other parts of the state.

Suvarna’s father was a banker who quit to start a fishing business. The family business has risen alongside Suvarna’s clout in the region, with the 45-year-old emerging as the voice of the Mogaveera community that is largely employed in fishing. The saying goes that in coastal Karnataka, whoever controls the seas, controls the region, and it is true in Suvarna’s case.

For the past 13 years, he has also been president of the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts’ Cooperative Fish Marketing Federation.

In the coastal districts where communal issues hold more sway than caste, unlike other parts of Karnataka, Suvarna’s gravitation towards the BJP was natural. The family has had old links with the RSS. As far back as 1980, Suvarna’s uncle Raghunath, an RSS worker, contested from Surathkal Assembly constituency and lost.

While in college, Suvarna was associated with the ABVP, followed by the Bajrang Dal. By his late 20s, he had earned a reputation locally as a cow vigilante. In 2005, he was one of the prime accused in the stripping and parading of a father and his son who were allegedly transporting calves. He was later acquitted by a special trial court.

In 2017, when Sri Vishweshateertha Swamiji of the Pejawar Mutt of Udupi organised an iftar party inside the mutt, Suvarna was among those who objected. “I told the seer not to entertain Muslims, but did not comment against him in public as he was my guru,” he says.