BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s recent temple sprint may well earn him a unique political footnote — a Congress leader whose temple visits now rival, if not outnumber, those of BJP stalwarts. Over the past few weeks, Shivakumar has embarked on an intense round of prayers across prominent shrines, sharply fuelling speculation of an imminent leadership shake-up in Karnataka.
The timing is hard to miss: the visits coincide with renewed murmurs of a powersharing tussle with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. From late November to mid-December, Shivakumar made a string of high-profile stops, especially in coastal Karnataka.
On November 29, he visited the Bhoo Varaha Swamy Temple in Mandya with his wife Usha, soon after what Congress leaders described as a “truce” breakfast with Siddaramaiah. Shivakumar later said the shrine held deep personal meaning, recalling prayers offered there during his time in jail.
The pace picked up on December 19 with a special pooja at the Mahabaleshwar Temple in Gokarna, followed by over two hours of closed-door rituals and homa at the Sri Jagadishwari Temple near Ankola on Kalratri Amavasya. This was his first visit to a coastal Shakti Peetha in nearly five years, triggering intense political chatter.
The following day, he offered prayers at the Idagunji Ganapathi Temple, rounding off the coastal circuit. Shivakumar has consistently dismissed political readings, saying his prayers are “between me and the deity”. Opposition leaders, including JDS leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, have derided the exercise as devotion driven by power ambitions.
“It is true that Shivakumar is making a heady mix of ‘spiritualism’ and power politics. He knows this is how he can reach out to God-abiding and commercially minded decisionmakers in his party. He has also kept the Vokkaliga seer on his side. The moot question is how many MLAs back him really,’’ said Prof P S Jayaramu, political analyst.