Sadananda slams parties for dragging seer's name for political gains

Bengaluru: Former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Sunday said like him, many Vokkaligas, did not approve of dragging the name of the community’s Adichunchanagiri Mutt and its seer for political gains.

Speaking to reporters here, the outgoing Bangalore North MP said that he was pained to see how the mutt’s premises and seer’s name were being misused during elections by some parties and leaders in the state. “Those (leaders) who drag icons of our community or religious heads or mutts into political debate are no less anti-national and anti-social,” he said. 

Gowda said he wasn’t blaming any particular party or leader for this. Though BJP and JD(S) leaders called on the seer last week, he was neither informed nor invited to join the team, Gowda said. 

‘”It is a small issue. I was not in town, but I was neither informed nor invited,” he said. Attacking Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar over his recent remarks that the “seer’s phone was tapped,” the former CM questioned why the government was not probing the matter.