Lakshmivara Tirtha Swami of Shiroor Mutt, 55, who passed away on July 19, the Assembly elections in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a clean sweep, and the missing fishing boat dominated the headlines in Udupi district in 2018.

The Shiroor seer became the first among seers of the Ashta Mutts or eight mutts to file nomination papers as an independent candidate to contest the State Assembly elections from Udupi Assembly Constituency on April 21. But he also withdrew his nomination papers on April 27.

For a few months, the Shiroor seer had a running battle with other seers of the Ashta Mutts urging them to hand over the presiding deities of his mutt, which he had given to be kept at the sanctum sanctorum of the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple.

But the seers of the Ashta Mutts wanted the Shiroor seer to take a junior seer. The Shiroor seer refused to do so and filed a caveat petition in the civil court here. This controversy continued till the Shiroor seer’s death.

Even after his death, there was controversy over the cause of his death. But after investigation, it turned out that he died of health issues and it was a natural death.

In the Assembly elections, the BJP made a clean sweep in the district by winning all five Assembly constituencies of Udupi, Kundapur, Karkala, Kaup and Byndoor on May 15. Halady Srinivas Shetty of BJP won by the highest margin of 56,405 votes. Pramod Madhwaraj, who was Minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, was defeated by Raghupati Bhat of BJP by 12,044 votes.

A deep sea trawler, Suvarna Tribhuja, with seven fishermen on board, went missing off the Goa coast on December 15 even as efforts were on to trace it by the Coast Guard and the Navy.

The Malpe Fishermen’s Association gave a three-day deadline to the State government on December 31 to trace the boat or face an intense agitation by fishermen.

On January 18, Vidyadheesha Tirtha Swami of Palimar Mutt ascended the Paryaya Peetha at the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple for the second time. The 88-year-old Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Mutt descended the Paryaya Peetha after completing his historic fifth Paryaya on the same day. President Ram Nath Kovind visited Udupi to felicitate the Pejawar seer on completion of his 80th anniversary of ‘sanyasa sweekara’ in Udupi on December 27.