Bengaluru, Oct 6 (IANS): Even as Chamarajanagar jinx continues to haunt men in power in Karnataka, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is all set to participate in the inauguration programme of 450 bed hospital built by Medical Sciences Institute at Yadapura village in Chamarajanagar district on Thursday (October 7).
It is believed that a Chief Minister who visits Chamarajanagar town would lose power. Bommai stated that he won't believe in such things. As a Chief Minister, it is his duty to treat all the districts equally in terms of development. He also said that he will continue to visit Chamarajanagar in future also.
The list of chief ministers who have skipped Chamarajanagar is long. It includes former Chief Ministers B.S. Yediyurappa, H.D. Kumaraswamy, D.V. Sadananda Gowda in the recent past. S.M. Krishna never visited Chamarajanagar during his tenure. Former CM J.H. Patel, known to be a rationalist, didn't dare enter Chamarajanagar town, restricting himself to MM Hills. He even inaugurated the district from MM Hills.
The exception was Opposition leader Siddaramaiah who visited Chamarajanagar more than 9 times during his tenure.
The jinx started with former Chief Minister D. Devraj Urs losing power after a couple of months of visiting Chamarajanagar in 1980. R. Gundu Rao, Ramakrishna Hegde, Bommai's father S.R. Bommai and Veerendra Patil lost power as Chief Ministers after visiting Chamarajanagar in 1982, 1988, 1989 and 1991.
Later, socialist leader S. Bangarappa, former union minister M. Veerappa Moily, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, N. Dharam Singh did not visit Chamarajanagar.
Niranjan Kumar, BJP MLA from Chamarajanagar district told IANS, "as a native of the place which is branded as jinxed I say that it is a heavenly land of many sacred personalities. Someone has created this without any basis. I welcome Bommai's decision which has to be emulated by the other politicians," he said.
Shashikumar Kilagere, senior BJP leader from Chamarajanagar stated that is a superstitious belief created by the leaders of the Congress party. "In this scientific age how can anyone think of a land being jinxed, I welcome Bommai to our land," he said.