With BJP president Nitin Gadkari giving him a clean chit,Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa seems to be back in favour a turnaround for which his family priest and astrologer,Bhanu Prakash Sharma,claims some of the credit. On October 11 last year,Yeddyurappa faced the first of two trust votes in the Assembly. The eastern gates of the Vidhana Soudha,the building that houses the state legislature,were shut. A day earlier,on the lawns of the building,the police had found some bangles,a handful of vermilion and turmeric,a lemon pierced with four nails,an egg,a copper bowl and a doll made of dough. Black magic, cried Yeddyurappa; black magic,cried his opponents. The black magic paraphrenalia surfaced at Vidhana Soudha at least twice after that. Though its still not clear how it landed in the high security zone,in Srirangapatna,near Mysore,Sharma,has a theory. Its his opponents,amma, he claims. Yeddyurappas opponents in the JD(S) and Congress? Ah,not them. Its clear that some kutumba virodhi has done this. Parivarada holege,party holege (within the family,within the party). Sometimes people in your own family can act against you, says Sharma,stopping short of naming the factions within the state BJP. In a state where witchcraft and statecraft are often spoken of in the same breath,and where politicians believe their destiny can be reshaped with a little bit of celestial push,Sharmas words carry a lot of weight. He runs the Shashwata Dharmika Kriya Samiti in Srirangapatna,a town in Mandya district on the road to Mysore. A lot of politicians have come to me,from all parties. Starting from Deve Gowda and his sons,the late Veerendra Patil of the Congress,K M Nage Gowda (a former minister),Union Minister and former CM S M Krishna,Opposition leader Siddaramaiah (who denied knowing Sharma),and now,Yeddyurappa and his sons, he claims,pausing to help with the names and egging on,Bariyamma,ennu iddare (keep writing,there are more names). RSSs Sudarshan,VHPs Ashok Singhal. I am young,I am only 41,but I can get any of them to come here, he says. I did the Atirudra maha yagna for Deve Gowda in February 1996 and within three months,he became the PM. In October 1987,I did a Vishwa Santhi Maha Yagna at Rajiv Gandhis residence in Delhi. But its with Yeddyurappa that astrologers like Sharma found themselves basking in the political sunlight,their prophecies much in demand. The CM is known for his temple trips,is said to conduct yagnas to ward off the evil and occasionally cries black magic. The CM is of the Vruschika rashi (zodiac sign Scorpio) and rahu is entering this rashi,which isnt very good for him. I advised him to do the Sahasra Chandika yagna and offer one lakh modakas (a rice-based sweet) to Ganapati, says Sharma. And what about the nude surya namskara by a riverbed that he is reported to have advised the CM? Thats all lies. I didnt say in the nude. I only told the CM to take a dip with a cloth around his waist and do the surya namaskara to help him get over his troubles. Running a government isnt easy. You will have opponents, he says. But you dont run a government this way. As Chief Minister,he should run the government within the framework of the Constitution and the Constitution says the CM should have a scientific approach. All this is foolish. I dont believe in these things, says Congress leader Siddaramaiah,who has threatened to drag Yeddyurappa to court for his black magic allegation.
