[1] At the first conclave of the National Congress (Goa) (NCG), held at Londa on 17 and 18 August 1946, Hegde was elected as its first president.

While addressing the audience in Marathi, he was arrested for instigating the public against the foreign domination, and for the distribution of pamphlets that featured an appeal signed by him as the president of the NCG.

Along with José Inácio Candido de Loyola, Laxmikant Bhembre and Purushottam Kakodkar, he was deported to Portugal in a ship, Bartolomeu Dias.

[1] He then obtained a UK passport, and, accompanied by his Portuguese wife Maria Amelia and Purushottam Kakodkar, returned to Bombay via London on 17 May 1956.

[1] In June 1957, Hegde was part of a delegation of 11 Goans chosen for consultation by then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.

[1] In his book Panthast, Goan writer Ravindra Kelekar blamed the failure of the non-violent Goa Freedom Movement, started by Ram Manohar Lohia, on the fights between Hegde and Purushottam Kakodkar.