CM skips Kudroli Dasara, spends time at Ivan's house; Poojary curses both

Mangaluru, Oct 10: Veteran Congress leader B Janardhana Poojary has cursed the Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah after the latter gave the formal inauguration of Kudroli Dasara a miss although he was present in Mangaluru on Sunday.

Mr Siddaramaiah had inaugurated the Kudroli Dasara in 2014. Every year Mr Poojary, the patron of Kudroli Gokarnanatheshwara Temple, invites a special guest for the formal inauguration of the common man's Dasara. This year he had not invited any special guest.

It is learnt that Mr Poojary had expected the CM's visit to the Temple during his day-long Dakshina Kannada tour on Sunday.

However, after returning from Koila in Puttur taluk, where he laid foundation stone for a veterinary college, Mr Siddaramaiah visited the house of Ivan D'Souza, chief whip of the government in state legislative council, at Valencia.

Mr Poojary slammed both CM and the chief whip for allegedly ignoring the Mangaluru Dasara programme. “God will not forgive Mr Siddaramaiah for this blunder,” Mr Poojary said and added that Mr D'Souza too is responsible for CM's “indifferent attitude”.

However, Mr D'Souza said that visit to Kudroli was not on the cards and it was not included in the CM's official tour programme. He said that he had invited the CM on his arrival to the city and the latter accepted the same. "He was in my house for around 45 minutes before flying back to Bengaluru," he said.