Bangalore: A final decision on the controversial Shoba Yatra at Bababudangiri in Chikmagalur district in December would be taken after a Samanwaya Samiti (coordination committee) meeting between the Janata Dal (S) and BJP, Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankaramurthy said here on Sunday.

Speaking to the press after launching the Shiksha Bachao Andolan convention in Bangalore, he said the statements made by Home Minister M.P. Prakash recently on maintaining status quo at the shrine and allowing only those rituals that were approved last year by the Dharam Singh Government was not the final word on the matter.

It may be recalled here that speaking in Mangalore on Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had also said the controversial issue would be thrashed out at the coordination committee meeting.

But striking a more defiant note while speaking in Gulbarga, BJP State president D.V. Sadananda Gowda had said Mr. Prakash could not take a unilateral stand on the issue.

Reacting to the statements by Janata Dal (S) president H.D. Deve Gowda on maintaining status quo at the shrine, he had said: "Deve Gowda cannot run the Government."

Speaking to The Hindu, BJP MLA for Chikmagalur C.T. Ravi said he had met Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and made a strong plea to allow the Shoba Yatra to go on in the light of the fact that "there has been no record of trouble" during the celebrations in the last nine years.

Meanwhile, reacting to the issue, K.L. Ashok, secretary of Komu Sauharda Vedike, an anti-communal forum that has been active on this issue, said that any attempt to hold Shoba Yatra or even "bring the issue alive as a dispute" amounted to contempt of court.

Citing the High Court judgment of 1985 and the Supreme Court judgment of 1991, Mr. Ashok said there were clear directives to hold only those rituals that were practised before June 1975.

Mysore Staff Correspondent reports:

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said the coordination committee of the coalition partners would take a final decision on the Shoba Yatra.

Speaking to presspersons soon after arrival at Mandakalli airport on Sunday, Mr. Kumaraswamy denied any differences among the coalition partners over the controversial yatra.

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