Wooing Vokkaligas? Amit Shah visits Adichunchanagiri
He had a closed door meeting with the Mutt seer Sri Nirmalananda Swamiji.
Mysuru: In an attempt to woo Vokkaliga voters, BJP national president Mr Amit Shah visited the powerful Adichunchanagiri Mutt near Nagamangala in the old Mysuru region on Sunday.
He released a book ‘The Story Of A Guru’ by Sudha Mahi Raghunathan and was all praise for the Mutt, their work and the late Sri Balagangadharnathaswamy. “Setting up 466 institutions with 1.35 lakh students and a 2,000-bed hospital is miraculous,” he said.
He also remembered Nada Prabhu Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru and a Vokkaliga and said, “Had Sri Kempegowda desired, he could have built Bengaluru as a commercial city, but he built the city on the foundation of Dharma. This was because of the great influence of Aadichunchangiri Mutt on him as he was a devotee of the math.”
He had a closed door meeting with the Mutt seer Sri Nirmalananda Swamiji.
Meanwhile seer of the math, Sri Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji put a stop to rumours that he would contest the assembly election on a BJP ticket.
Ironically, Vokkaliga strongman and former CM S.M. Krishna who recently joined the BJP, was missing at the function. None of the banners on Mr Shah’s visit to Mandya district, had Mr Krishna’s name or photo on them.
‘Central fund not reaching people’
His packed programmes and unexpected audience size, forced BJP President Amit Shah's much hyped meeting with a select audience on Saturday evening to be confined to a speech.
While some of the select invitees could not make it to the meeting due to their prior schedule, those who attended were accompanied by their friends, which was unexpected. Mr Shah, who was running behind schedule, made a speech running down the state government. He termed the Siddaramaiah government as one of the most corrupt and said that despite IT raids on his powerful minister Mr D.K. Shivakumar, the latter was not asked to resign.
He charged that no union government schemes were reaching the people and there were no accounts for money spent on centrally sponsored schemes. ''A record amount of money is being allocated to the state for various schemes. We have 106 schemes, but people from Karnataka have nothing to cheer about, as your government will not allow any of these programmes to reach you. Ask Mr Siddaramaiah, where the money is going,'' he said.