Politics in temple upsets Dharmasthala devotees

The battle between Karnataka Chief Minister, B S Yeddyurappa and former Chief Minister, H D Kumaraswamy, was taken to Dharmasthala on Monday.

Yeddyurappa, who was the first to reach Dharmasthala, offered prayers at the temple for about 15 minutes during which other devotees were not allowed into the temple.

This led to a chaos, as other devotees were asked to wait outside till the chief minister finished his prayers. Yeddyurappa and his members of legislative assembly were greeted with protests by devotees, who accused him of keeping them away from the darshan of their Lord Manjunatha. However, the chief minister did not make any comments before leaving the temple. Yeddyurappa visited the temple along with about 30 MLAs and some ministers.

Just when the devotees thought the ordeal was over, it was H D Kumaraswamy's turn to pay obeisance to the lord.

Kumaraswamy had earlier said that Yeddyurappa had tried to buy peace with him in a bid to avoid getting exposed on corruption charges.

Yeddyurappa had retorted saying that there was no truth in the allegations and challenged Kumaraswamy to take a 'truth test', which he later retracted, at Dharmasthala.

Kumaraswamy while accepting the challenge threw back the same challenged at the chief minister. Yeddyurappa who had accepted the challenge, however, decided against it. He said he had dropped the idea of the truth test on the advice of religious leaders and Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari.

On his way out, Kumaraswamy told reporters that he had sworn before the lord that whatever he had said about the chief minister was true. He also said that he will take the battle to the streets and will embark on a state-wide campaign to expose Yeddyurappa. I will not rest until he is ousted, he warned.

Activists of a farmers' organisation raised slogans against Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy for allegedly bringing politics into the temple town and causing inconvenience to devotees.

With inputs from PTI