Kumaraswamy to prove Chamarajanagar jinx wrong

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has promised to visit Chamarajanagar town shortly to disprove the myth that Chief Ministers visiting the “jinxed” town would lose power.

Participating in a videoconference with journalists from across the State, Kumaraswamy said he does not subscribe to the superstitious belief that Chief Ministers visiting Chamarajanagar will lose power. “I will shortly visit the town and remove the superstition that has taken strong roots among politicians”, he told a scribe from Chamarajanagar.

Kumarawamy’s promise to visit Chamarajanagar came after a journalist claimed that developmental works in the district had suffered as successive Chief Ministers had maintained a safe distance from the town in view of the prevailing myth.

It may be mentioned here that successive Chief Ministers have steered clear of Chamarajanagar, located on Karnataka’s border with Tamil Nadu, in view of the widespread belief that any Chief Minister visiting the “jinxed” town would lose power soon thereafter.

It had all begun with late Chief Minister D Devaraj Urs losing his seat soon after visiting Chamarajanagar in the seventies. The superstition gained ground when his successors R Gundu Rao, Ramakrishna Hegde, S R Bommai and Veerendra Patil too met with the same fate after visiting the town.

Thereafter, no Chief Minister including socialites like S Bangarappa and J H Patel and progressives like S M Krishna had consciously shunned Chamarajanagar. Just like Kumaraswamy, his predecessor Dharam Singh too had promised to visit Chamarajanagar. But, Dharam Singh failed to keep the promise. It remains to be seen whether Kumaraswamy will keep his promise and shatters the myth surrounding Chamarajanagar.