Sonia's Tumkur visit to lift Congress spirits

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Saturday visit to Tumkur to felicitate Shivakumar Swamiji at Siddaganga Mutt on his completion of 105 years, has taken a political hue despite the mutt’s proclamations that the Saturday’s ‘Guruvandana’ programme would be apolitical.

The visit to the State could not have come at a better time than now when the ruling BJP is facing a plethora of problems while the Congress workers are in an upbeat mood after wresting from the BJP the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency in the recent by-election.

Sonia, who landed in Bangalore around 10 pm on Friday, was scheduled to stay at Raj Bhavan at night and visit Siddaganga Mutt, a powerful religious body of the Lingayat community, on Saturday. She will be the only politician who will be seated along with the seer on the dais at the Guruvandana event.

Congress leaders seem to have pulled some strings to create such an opportunity, as the party has not enjoyed the support Lingayats, who constitute 17 per cent of total voters, after the last Lingayat chief minister of the Congress, Veerendra Patil was ousted in 1990. Disillusioned by the Congress, the Lingayats began to looking for alternatives and the BJP, led by B S Yeddyurappa, filled that gap.

With the Congress not being able to win back their affection, the Lingayats have stayed firmly with Yeddyurappa and the BJP, even though the former chief minister and his coterie have lost their credibility due to a series of scams and the rift with within the party.

Notably, Yeddyurappa and his close associate, Minister V Somanna, who have been closely associated with Siddaganga Mutt, have decided not to attend the programme, dubbing it a Congress convention. The mutt, however has extended invitation to the senior leaders of all political parties including the former chief minister and his successor, D V Sadananda Gowda.

No association

Sources said that a group of devotees of the mutt, who have a major say in its daily administration, felt that the mutt should not allow itself to be identified with the BJP and influenced the organisers of the event to invite Sonia.

Village tour

Sonia will take part in the programme at 11 am after spending about an hour at the drought-hit Nagasamudra village in Molakalmur taluk in Chitradruga district, Around noon, she will preside over the general body meeting of the KPCC which will be attended by 1,500 invitees. She is scheduled to leave Bangalore by 2 pm.