Bengaluru: Former Minister and senior BJP leader Jayaprakash Hegde has been appointed as the new Chairman of Karnataka Backward Classes Commission. The Under Secretary of Backward Classes Welfare Department has issued an order appointing Hegde as the Commission Chairman with immediate effect.

Hegde was a Minister in the JD (S) Government led by J.H. Patel  in the nineties. He later joined the Congress and was elected as an MP from Udupi-Chikkamagalur Constituency. He quit the Congress ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls and joined the BJP.