Yeddyurappa, Kumaraswamy offer special prayers, Sriramulu performs gau puja before voting

Mr. Yeddyurappa prays at Sankata Vimochana Anjaneya temple in Shikaripura; Mr. Kumaraswamy offers prayers at Adi Chunchanagiri Math in Bengaluru.

BJP CM candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa leaves after voting in the Karnataka Assembly elections on May 12, 2018. Photo: @BSYBJP/Twitter

Two chief ministerial aspirants, BJP’s B.S. Yeddyurappa and H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD(S)sought divine blessing before casting their votes in the Karnataka Assembly elections on May 12.

Before leaving to exercise his franchise, Mr. Yeddyurappa with his party workers went to offer prayers at the ‘Sankata Vimochana Anjaneya’ at Shikaripura in his constituency.

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Former Chief Minister Kumaraswamy too sought the blessings of his family deity Bhairaveshwara at Adi Chunchanagiri Math at Vijayanagar in Bengaluru. “Before going to cast my vote, I decided to seek the blessings of Lord Bhairaveshwara and the Adi Chunchanagiri seer (Nirmalananda Swami),” said Mr. Kumaraswamy.

Adi Chunchanagiri is an important religious seat linked to the Vokkaliga community. A Vokkaliga himself, Mr. Kumaraswamy and his party the JD (S) mainly bank on Vokkaligas and minorities.

Similarly, BJP’s Badami candidate B. Sriramulu, who is fighting the Assembly election against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, performed a special

gau puja.

Mr. Sriramulu worshipped a cow and then visited temples before voting.

Mr. Sriramulu is contesting from two seats — Badami in Bagalkot district and Molakalamuru (reserved) in Chitradurga district.