Former Karnataka Minister and BJP leader KS Eshwarappa said the party does not need Muslim votes to win the upcoming election in Karnataka. "We don’t want even a single Muslim vote," he was quoted by ANI as saying while speaking on the issue of religious conversion at a Veerashaiva-Lingayat meeting in Shivamogga on Monday.

Eshwarappa, the former Deputy Chief Minister, retired from electoral politics earlier in April. In a letter to BJP national president JP Nadda, he said that he will not be contesting the state assembly elections on May 10. The veteran legislator said he was making this decision of his own volition.

Eshwarappa resigned as the BJP said it wants to make way for young leaders this time in assembly elections. The party has fielded over 50 new faces in this year's Karnataka election 2023.

Eshwarappa's raked up many controversies earlier, including his alleged role in the suicide of a contrator, and several instances of hate speech. In March, he stirred up a controversy over the Azan row. The former Karnataka minister had made the remark as the prayer call “disturbed” his speech at a public rally in Mangaluru’s Kavoor.

Speaking as part of the Vijay Sankalp Yatra last month, Eshwarappa was quopted by News 18 as saying, "...Can Allah only hear if you shout using a microphone? Even we Hindus do puja, women perform bhajans, but if Allah can hear (their prayers) only if a microphone is used means we have to call him deaf".

Eshwarappa was an MLA from Shivamogga. This time, The BJP has fieled Channabasappa, an active RSS member and four-time corporator, for Shivamogga, denying a place to sitting MLA and senior BJP leader K S Eshwarappa's family.