Political Career
Hegde became the president of the Uttara Kannada District Congress Committee from 1954 to 1957 and rose to become the general secretary of the Mysore Pradesh Congress Committee in 1958, a post he held until 1962. Much of his early administrative experience was built up during the governments of S. Nijalingappa (1956–58 and 1962–68) and Veerendra Patil (1968–71) in Karnataka. He was first elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1957 and was appointed a deputy minister. He was later promoted as a cabinet minister and held diverse portfolios such as Youth welfare and Sports, Cooperation, Industries, Planning, Panchayat Raj, Development, Information and Publicity, Excise and Finance between 1962-71.
During the famous split in the Congress in 1969, Hegde followed in the footsteps of his mentor Nijalingappa and joined the Congress (O). He was Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council for a few years until 1974. The 1975 Emergency crackdown on opposition leaders saw his arrest along with several other state and national level leaders. When the emergency was lifted, he joined the Janata Party and became the first general secretary of its state unit. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha during 1978-83.
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