In Karnataka, the Parliamentary polls campaign is intensifying into a bitter no-holds-barred contest. This is clear from the way the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) alliance, and the Congress are going hammer and tongs at each other. Each side is looking for issues on which it can embarrass their rival.

For instance, last week the Congress went the whole hog to shame Tejasvi Surya, BJP’s incumbent Member of Parliament from Bengaluru on his alleged treatment of the aggrieved deposit holders of a cooperative bank in the city. The BJP-JDS have now hit back, targeting Congress leader D. K. Shivakumar, the state’s Deputy Chief Minister.

The first attack came from none other than former Prime Minister, Deve Gowda. He accused Shivakumar of “kidnapping a nine-year-old-girl to force her father to part with his property”. Gowda told the media in Chikkamagaluru last week that he “had the relevant records” with him .

Earlier, Kumaraswamy, Gowda’s son and the JDS candidate from Mandya, had made similar allegations which were refuted by Shivakumar. Now the Gowda family has raised the issue again, demanding a probe into the alleged incident.

The opposition is also targeting Shivakumar accusing him of telling voters in apartment complexes which fall within Bengaluru North that “he could help them in getting the much needed Cauvery water, provided they favoured his brother D. K. Suresh, who is contesting from the constituency.”

Shivakumar is in-charge of Bengaluru city, and most of the government bodies related to development of infrastructure and basic amenities come under his purview. Following acute shortage in the city, many apartment complexes in the outskirts of the IT capital do not get regular drinking water.

Most of the high-rise apartments in the periphery of Bengaluru North depend on borewells for meeting their requirement. Many pay huge amounts to tanker drivers of the agencies which supply water. For these home units, proper drinking water from the Cauvery river has remained a dream, notwithstanding promises made by the authorities.

Most apartment owners, largely IT sector employees, have yet to get proper documents, this is something Shivakumar assured to get sorted, while campaigning for his brother. Following complaints by the Opposition parties, an FIR has been filed against Shivakumar by the Chief Election Officer (CEO).

The CEO has not spared the JDS and BJP too, filing FIRs against Kumaraswamy and B. Vijayendra, the BJP state unit president, for allegedly giving false statements in connection with the polls and disturbing “public tranquillity.”

The Must Visit Religious Mutths

Several Mutths or Mathas, which are monasteries, are now busy receiving politicians of all hues. The political leaders are in a rush to seek the blessings of their spiritual leaders. The politicians also expect the Mutths and their pontiffs to influence the voters. The other objective is to send a message to their constituents about their deep religious beliefs.

Karnataka is home to over a thousand big and small Mutths. These cater to different castes and communities including the dominant Lingayats and Vokkaligas. There are Mutths representing the Valmikis, Kurubas, Madigas, Yadavs and Banjaras, and other communities also.

A pontiff of a leading Mutths claimed recently that “in general we do not intervene or influence the voters in any way. Nor, can we stop the politicians from visiting us, to seek our blessings.” These Mutths wield tremendous influence on their followers, socially, culturally and in their day-to-day life, with most even running educational institutions.

This explains why the politicians flock to them, particularly during election time, as was evident from the recent visits to the Adi Chunchungiri swami by leaders from the BJP-JDS combine, including H. D. Kumaraswamy, his father, Deve Gowda, former CM, D. V. Sadananda Gowda, C. N. Aswath Narayan, Shobha Karandlaje, C. T. Ravi and Tejasvi Surya.

Tejasvi Surya of the BJP claimed that these visits were undertaken because “our culture is to take the blessings of Swamijis, visit temples on the very first day of the New Year, Ugadi, celebrated by Kannadigas and Telugus. All major leaders of the NDA visited Adichunchanagiri, one of the oldest mutts in the state. The coming 15 days are a very crucial period for our campaign."

However, Shivakumar of the Congress, was not amused. He lashed out at Kumaraswamy for taking the BJP leaders with him to the Vokkaliga Mutths. He wondered how the JDS leader could take leaders of BJP to the Mutths alleging that “its leaders in the state were responsible for bringing down the previous Congress-JDS government”.

That politics and religion go together was proved further by Shivakumar himself when he went temple hopping in Mangalore in March. He claimed that this was something he did before every election .

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