Slain K’taka BJP leader’s mother takes on powerful Lingayat seer

Dharwad, Nov 7 : The mother of slain BJP zilla panchayat member Yogeeshgouda Goudar has shot off a letter to their community’s powerful pontiff – Jagadguru Sri Basava Jaya Mruthyunjaya Swamiji – on Saturday asking him not to back her son’s killers.
Yogeeshgouda Goudar was hacked to death by five to six men in his own gym in June 2016 allegedly over a property dispute.
Jagadguru Sri Basava Jaya Mruthunjaya Swamiji is a powerful pontiff of Lingayat community, to which both Kulkarni and Goudar families belong.
The pontiff met family members of Vinay Kulkarni who was arrested, where he stated that he would stand with the family who have been wronged. “Vinay and his family has blessings of Siddharuda, Akkamma and all several Lingayat saints,” he said after Vinay Kulkari was taken into the CBI custody.
The pontiff’s statement had kicked off a row as it had put the ruling BJP in a tight spot. The ruling party largely draws it electoral strength from Lingayat community, ever since it gained foothold in Karnataka three decades ago.
It appears to be damage control exercise, as Goudar’s mother Tungevva Goudar wrote a letter to the seer emotionally asserting that she being a widow belongs to the same community and she lost her son at a very young age. “Swamiji did you not see any injustice meted out to me?” she asks emotionally.