Bengaluru: Former minister Anand Asnotikar, who contested in the recently held Lok Sabha polls as JDS candidate from Uttara Kannada has alleged that even though union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde was facing a lot of anti-incumbency, he could manage to win because of revenue minister R V Deshpande, who is also the district in-charge minister.

Speaking to the reporters, he stated that if Deshpande had extended full cooperation to him, he would have won.

“People were upset with Hegde. His contribution to the constituency is a big zero. People were waiting to teach him a lesson. There was no Modi wave at all. Still he won due to our errors,” he said.

“People were upset with Hegde’s anti-constitution statement also. If only Deshpande stood by me strongly, I would have won easily,” he said.

“The alliance with Congress didn’t help us. If there was no alliance, HD Deve Gowda and Nikhil Kumaraswamy too would have won easily, “He opined and added that it is evident that the Congress votes went to the BJP.