Not opponents, voodoo scares BJP men

Hubballi: Temple visits and superstitions often accompany the announcement of elections as politicians try to get the divine on their side. But merely a day after the announcement of the  election date for Karnataka, it was black magic time in 

Dharwad where BJP leaders received a fright on arriving at their party office. To their horror, they were greeted by a black voodoo doll hanging from the door.

Strongly suspecting that either  the Congress or JD(S) was trying to harm their party’s poll prospects , they lost no time in filing a police complaint  and approaching the Election Commission to demand action against those responsible. . 

The BJP leaders were meeting at the Dharwad party office todiscuss election strategy with their district youth wings, but got into a panic instead after noticing the doll and began to sift through the footage of the CCTV cameras installed to catch the culprits. But they had no luck as the office is located in a crowded marketplace. 

“We don’t believe in black magic. Still, we have given a complaint to the police as a precaution as sheep or chicken could be sacrificed  next in front of our office out of political vendetta. The incident has  created panic among BJP workers,” said Dharwad district BJP youth morcha president, Sharanu Angadi.

Even otherwise most candidates carry with them a lemon smeared with vermilion every day in the run-up to  elections on the advice of priests to “ward off evil.”  Rationalists blame the practice on the region’s backwardness and low literacy rate.