Karnataka has 1.80 lakh plus Hindu temples of which 34,563 are under the Muzrai department. The Karnataka chief minister has, however, embarked upon freeing the temples from state control, an agenda vigorously pursued by the RSS. Not all BJP insiders are happy though. “All states have retained either the management of temples or a supervisory role over temples, but Karnataka will be the first state to undo it. Why this sudden move which will encourage vested interests to enter? Even the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam is with the government and managed by a board,’’ one of them exclaimed. Six months after he took over as Chief Minister, the fourth to do so since 2018, Karnataka’s Basavaraj Bommai has made more news for pushing the Hindutva agenda. From getting the New Education Policy and the AntiConversion Bill passed in the Legislative Assembly in the midst of protests to his justification of Right Wing moral policing, Bommai’s transition from a moderate socialist to a hard core ‘saffronist’ has surprised even BJP hardliners.Joining the BJP from JD(U) in 2008, Bommai was not seen as an eager beaver wanting to soak in the saffron party’s ideology. His father, former chief minister S.R. Bommai, was a follower of Leftist M.N. Roy and Bommai Junior imbibed the socialist principles. He served as political secretary to former chief minister J.H. Patel, a staunch socialist, before jumping ship to the BJP. In the BJP, he was content to remain a close confidant of former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, got key portfolios of home and water resources but did not follow the Lingayat strongman when the latter severed his 40 years’ association with the BJP to launch the Karnataka Janata Paksha in 2012. Two years later, Bommai to an extent was instrumental in getting Yediyurappa back into the party.
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