Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will be campaigning in the Gowda heartland of Mandya on Wednesday. This will be his first appearance for the upcoming Karnataka elections. The ruling BJP, which is fighting a tough election, has cleverly roped in Yogi Adityanath in Mandya, where it has no significant presence. The Vokkaliga dominated districts of Mandya, Hassan, Ramanagara, Bengaluru Rural, Kolar and Chikkaballapura are known as Gowda heartland where the JDS of HD Deve Gowda is in direct fight with the Congress.
In recent years, the BJP has made some inroads into these districts through ‘Operation Lotus’ defections and pitting younger faces such as Hassan MLA Preetham Gowda and habitual turncoat CP Yogishwar in Channapatna against the JDS and Congress in the densely populated agrarian region.
The Vokkaliga caste is a farming community and their religious Mutt Adichunchanagiri in Mandya district apparently follows the Nath sect. The link between Adichunchanagiri and Gorakhpur is new. Before Yogi Adityanath became the CM of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, there was no such talk anywhere in the Gowda belt. After he became the CM, a section in the community aligned with the BJP started arguing that their Mutt is also a Nath Panth centre and that’s why their seer is also known as Natha.
The technocrat turned monk of the Vokkaliga caste, powerful Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji has an excellent personal rapport with Yogi Adityanath and has visited UP on many occasions since he became the CM.
The BJP strategists feel that this connection might help the party to wean away a big chunk of Vokkaliga votes from JDS and Congress. But the same formula was used in 2018 as well. Yogi had then campaigned aggressively for the BJP across Karnataka including old Mysore region. Barring a few pockets, it did not help much in the rest of the region.
The Vokkaliga caste Mutt is located in a village Adichunchanagiri in Nagamangala Taluk. According to historians, it is an ancient Mutt with a history of at least a thousand years. Since Vokkaligas follow Shakta, Shaiva, Vaishnava and few other beliefs, the followers of Nath Panth from the north used to visit the Kala Bhairava temple at the Mutt.
The JDS and Congress followers among the Vokkaligas are sceptical about the relationship between Adichunchanagiri and Gorakhpur. They argue that both may be similar in their beliefs, but they never had any direct relationship. They also question the BJP bringing Yogi Adityanath to Gowda heartland with this new discovery.
“Yogi Adityanath is free to campaign as a BJP leader. But the ‘Mutt link’ should not be used”, they maintain.
After the Vokkaliga seer publicly opposed the BJP’s newfound theory of two Gowdas – Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda – who killed the 18th century ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, in 1799 at Srirangapatna, his Cauvery river capital, a shocked saffron party junked the whole issue fearing a huge Gowda community backlash.
The all-powerful Vokkaliga Mutt has always maintained a distance with politics, though all leaders make a beeline to it from time to time.
The local BJP leaders hope Yogi Adityanath’s no nonsense, tough CM image might help them in the campaign. After Mandya public meeting, Yogi Adityanath will be flying to Basavana Bagewadi in Bijapur district in north Karnataka.
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