D.V. Sadananda Gowda

BANGALORE: Raising the pitch on the Bababudangiri-Datta Peetha issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to take out two rath yatras in the State ahead of the Datta Jayanthi celebrations at Bababudangiri in Chikmagalur district in December.

The rath yatras will start on November 20 from Mysore and Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district, State BJP president D.V. Sadananda Gowda told The Hindu here on Thursday.

The rath yatras would culminate in a public meeting in Chikmagalur on November 26. Around 25,000 people were expected to participate in the meeting and that all BJP legislators and MPs would attend, he said.

The purpose behind holding the rath yatras and the meeting was to create awareness among the public on the Datta Peetha issue as "certain groups" were trying to create an "unnecessary controversy" by misinterpreting the court orders, he said.

BJP State secretary and Karkala MLA V. Sunil Kumar would lead the yatra from Dharmasthala and the BJP Yuva Morcha State president and Chikmagalur MLA C.T. Ravi would lead the other from Mysore, Mr. Gowda said.

Meanwhile, sources in the BJP clarified that there was no disagreement among the various arms of the Sangh Parivar on the Datta Peetha issue as had been projected in a section of the press.

The party had decided to support all the decisions the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) would take with regard to Datta Jayanthi celebrations, be it the "Shoba Yatra" or the conduct of "homa." The sources said it was the VHP, and not the BJP, that was in the forefront of the Datta Peetha movement.

The BJP's decision was conveyed to the Sangh Parivar leaders at a meeting at the RSS headquarters here on Thursday, the sources said.

Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Mr. Gowda, Mr. Sunil Kumar and Mr. Ravi attended the meeting. Senior RSS and VHP leaders, including the former MLC K. Narahari, were present.

Apart from the Sangh Parivar organisations, some Hindu groups such as Sri Rama Sena and Rashtriya Hindu Sena were also in involved in the Datta Peetha movement. The Rashtriya Hindu Sena was floated by Pramod Mutalik, Bajrang Dal's former South India chief, after he parted ways with the Sangh Parivar. Sri Rama Sena, a splinter group of the Sangh Parivar, is active in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikmagalur districts.

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