BELGAUM: Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda asserted that no one had asked him to skip the programme organised by the Veerashaiva Panchamasali Sangh at Gokak town.
Speaking to the Media here on Saturday, Gowda, after attending a convention organised to mark the fourth anniversary of the Panchamasali Jagadgurugala Peetharohana, said that no one neither asked nor ordered him to attend the convention— a swipe aimed apparently at his predecessor, B S Yeddyurappa.
“I am liberal and no one has the rights to ask do so,” he added.
With Yeddyurappa, considered the de-facto leader of the Lingayats, not being invited to the convention of the Panchamsalis, a Lingayat sect, it is said that some from the BJP had asked the CM to attend the programme, which also saw the participation of some matadishas (heads of religious mutts) powerful Lingayat mutts.