Mutt Math

The saffron party woos the state’s clergy in earnest, ironically even those who want to leave the Hindu fold

- Sujit Thakur and Aravind Gowda

GRIM FACES AT THE Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh coordination committee meeting in Bengaluru last July broke into smiles when Union minister Ananth Kumar told them that Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had been allowed entry into Karnataka’s all­powerful mutts.

It hadn’t been easy. Party president Amit Shah delayed his trip to the state by over two weeks last July because Swami Nirmalananda, head of the Sri Kshetra Adichunchanagiri, the most important mutt of the Vokkaliga community, was travelling abroad. And when they did meet on August 12, Shah and he were together for five hours! Though Nirmalananda insists there was “no political conversation”, mutt sources say the BJP chief managed to cajole Nirmalananda into granting BJP leaders easy audience in the run­up to the assembly elections.