JOIN USPontiffs plan major spectacle ahead of B S Yediyurappa's exit
Hundreds of seers have been invited to take part in a mega conclave scheduled to be held on July 25 coinciding with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s imminent exit.
“We have invited pontiffs of mutts from all communities,” Balehosur Dingaleshwar Swamy told reporters. The conclave will be held at Palace Grounds.
The seer said the conclave will discuss “ongoing developments”, but he refused to connect it with the change in leadership. “I can’t definitely say what will come up for discussion. But, I can say that this conclave isn’t to impress or blackmail anybody.”
Yediyurappa is arguably the BJP’s tallest Lingayat leader and several mutts, mostly from this community, have rallied behind him by mounting pressure on the saffron party to let him be. Lingayats, who are estimated to make up 16 per cent of the state’s population, are seen as the BJP’s core support base.
Earlier this week, Dingaleshwar Swamy led a delegation of seers to Yediyurappa, expressing solidarity with the Lingayat leader. The seer had said that over 500 pontiffs would be mobilized in support of Yediyurappa if the BJP central leadership failed to drop its plan to replace him.
“It will be wrong for me to say what the agenda of the conclave will be. Anything might come up for discussion there. Whatever decision is taken will be conveyed at the conclave,” the Dingaleshwar seer said, neither confirming nor denying the possibility of Yediyurappa’s exit figuring in the conclave.
The pontiffs conclave is seen as an effort to mobilize support for Yediyurappa.
Responding to criticism over pontiffs getting involved in politics, Dingaleshwar Swamy said: “No mutt has favoured a single party or person. Pontiffs protest only when there’s injustice. Mutts do have the right to point out when something’s going wrong.”
According to a senior BJP leader, the timing of the conclave is suspect. “After Yediyurappa’s appeal that no one should protest or speak in his favour, we believed that the pontiffs would stop rallying for him. We need to see how this plays out,” the leader said.
Sources in the RSS, the BJP’s ideological parent, said it would be up to Yediyurappa to ensure the dominant Lingayat community was not antagonized.
Earlier in the day, Dingaleshwar Swamy and a few others seers went to Mines & Geology Minister Murugesh Nirani's house to greet him. Nirani, also a Lingayat, is being speculated as Yediyurappa's replacement.