The 'jinx' that has kept many CMs away from Chamarajanagar

In the political culture of India, superstition unfortunately plays a significant role. Politicians cutting across party lines believe in and practice them, openly or secretly.

Sometimes even the well-read politicians turn out to be superstitious and often fail to take fact-based decisions. In poll-bound Karnataka, there is one such myth nurtured for decades that any minister who visited Chamarajanagar was doomed to be thrown out of power.

In 1980, then Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs, who visited Chamarajanagar, was eventually lost power within six months of his visit. Two years later, Gundu Rao visited the town and met with the same fate.

Ramakrishna Hegde, whose Janata Party ousted the Congress, lost power after he reportedly visited Chamarajanagar. In 1989, S.R. Bommai lost the CM seat in a similar manner. In 1990, Veerendra Patil too lost the CM's post after his visit to Chamarajanagar. He was unceremoniously sacked by then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi.

Such coincidents led the politicians as well as the people at large to belief that the town is 'jinxed'. This even forced the next six Congress Chief Ministers to stay away from Chamarajanagar. S. Bangarappa, Veerappa Moily, H.D. Deve Gowda, even a 'progressive' J.H. Patel, S.M. Krishna and Dharam Singh chose not to visit the place fearing they might lose power.

Notably, BJP's B.S. Yediyurappa too did not visit this town after coming to power in 2019.

On the flip side, H.D. Kumaraswamy visited Chamarajanagar and became the Chief Minister, first one to do so in 17 years. But later, he too was out of power.

In the case of Siddaramaiah, he visited the town 8-10 times after coming to power in 2013. He had even attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not turning up at this place during an election campaign in 2018. While people argue that he completed his full term despite visiting the place, skeptics say that he lost 2018 election due to his visit to Chamarajanagar.

Whether the ministers visit the district, which was carved out of Mysuru in 1997 and established as a new district, or not, but it continues to remain backward.