Siddaramaiah now becomes 'victim' of Chamarajanagar jinx

Though Siddaramaiah created history by becoming the first Chief Minister of Karnataka to complete his full term in office in the past 40 years, the Chamarajanagar jinx seems to have caught up with him.

The Bharatiya Janata Party( BJP) is set to return to power in its southern bastion, Karnataka, as its candidates crossed the half-way mark in vote count, stunning and ousting the ruling Congress and leaving the JD-S at the third spot. The Congress has now been virtually decimated in Karnataka.

The jinx attached to Chamrajanagar is well known in the political circle. It is believed that politicians lost power after a visit to Chamarajanagar town.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not visit the town during his recent trip to the district, Siddaramaiah said he was afraid that he would lose his chair.

There are examples which prove superstition attached Chamrajnagar to be true. It is said former CMs D Devaraj Urs, R Gundu Rao, Ramakrishna Hegde, SR Bommai, Veerendra Patil and Kumaraswamy lost power soon after visiting the town.

Even former CM H D Kumaraswamy was the last CM to visit the town in June 2007 and a couple of months later, the JD(S)-BJP government fell. On the other hand, former CMs across political parties did not visit the city out of fear of losing power. Former CMs S Bangarappa, M Veerappa Moily, HD Deve Gowda, JH Patel, SM Krishna, N Dharam Singh, BS Yeddyurappa and DV Sadananda Gowda avoided visiting Chamarajanagar.

When Chamrajnagar was carved out of Mysore district in 1998, then CM JH Patel inaugurated it at a function organised in MM Hills in Kollegal, 40 km from Chamarajanagar.