Chamarajanagar, a jinxed town?

M. Gautham Machaiah

 

The backward town of Chamarajanagar, near Mysore has for long being termed jinxed, as it is believed that no Chief Minister who visits this place survives in office beyond a few months. With five Chief Ministers of Karnataka losing power soon after visiting Chamarajanagar, their successors have kept away from this “cursed” town.

 

Against this backdrop, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah deserves to be congratulated for visiting Chamarajanagar today, disregarding the advice of soothsayers and political advisors.

The first victim of this “jinx” was Karnataka’s longest serving Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs, whose term was cut short in 1980, six months after visiting Chamarajanagar. His successors, R. Gundu Rao, Ramakrishna Hegde, S.R. Bommai and Veerendra Patil met with the same fate after they attended official engagements at the town.

 

After Patil’s unceremoniously exit as Chief Minister in 1990, S. Bangarappa and M. Veerappa Moily who succeeded him also maintained a safe distance from the region.

 

When H.D. Deve Gowda became the Chief Minister after Moily, he agreed to participate in a function at Honderbalu village near Chamarajanagar. But the moment he realised that his convoy was to pass through Chamarajanagar, he opted for a helicopter so that he could land directly at the village without touching the cursed town.

 

In 1997, Chamarajanagar which was until then a part of the neighbouring Mysore was carved into a separate district. The inauguration of the new district was fixed at Chamarajanagar and a visit by the then Chief Minister J.H. Patel appeared inevitable. Given Patel’s socialistic background, political pundits predicted that he would be the one to break the jinx, but the Chief Minister chickened out at the last moment and shifted the inauguration to Male Mahadeshwara Hills, a popular temple town nearby.

 

The tech-savvy S.M. Krishna, who was in office for nearly five years, also did not pay a single visit. His successor Dharam Singh stirred nowhere near the town and when he was invited to inaugurate an education-related project, he did it through satellite link, sitting in his office in Bangalore.

 

Thus, for about 17 years Chamarajanagar was the only major town in the State which was not visited by any Chief Minister. Finally in 2007, H.D. Kumaraswamy stepped into the town, but that was at the fag end of his term as the Chief Minister. It is another matter that in the elections that ensued, his party put up a poor show.

 

Subsequent Chief Ministers B.S. Yeddyurappa, Sadananada Gowda and Jagadish Sheter too followed the tradition of avoiding the town.

 

Vatal Nagaraj, a prominent local leader who is not amused by all this fuss has being crying hoarse that his town is as safe as any other. “I have invited all Chief Ministers to inaugurate developmental projects here but to no avail. There is no connection between Chief Ministers demitting office and their visit to Chamarajanagar. The political situation at that time was such that they would have lost power even if they had not visited the town.” he argues.

 

There is truth in what he says, but when it comes to clinging to power, reason is something that politicians refuse to acknowledge. But Siddaramaiah has proved to be an exception by visiting this town in the very beginning of his term. Let us hope other superstitious politicians follow suit.