Chitradurga/Bengaluru: It’s a brightly lit room on the first floor of the Murugha Matha (or mutt) with the sun pouring in through small windows. The wall is crammed with pictures of Sri Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, head of the matha, sharing space with former prime ministers of India and chief ministers of Karnataka.

At least 20 seers in saffron, for whom the Murugha Matha is their spiritual headquarters, patiently await the next VIP visit. This time it’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah and former Karnataka chief minister B.S.Yeddyurappa.

Shah and his entourage make their way to the private chambers of the head pontiff. A few minutes later, the seer and Shah enter the main hall where the latter felicitates the former, followed by a private meeting to seek support for the BJP in the 12 May assembly elections.

With polls looming, politicians are queuing up at influential mathas, or Hindu monasteries, whose endorsement or support could help determine the outcome in many constituencies and possibly even the final results. By paying respects, political parties are hoping to win the backing of the mathas’ thousands of followers, who are known to vote en masse.

Estimates by historians and sociologists suggest that there are a few hundred such caste-based mathas that are centred around a pontiff who wields considerable influence on the followers.

Unlike modern religious or spiritual figures like Baba Ramdev or Sri Sri Ravishankar who have a pan-India base, the influence of Karnataka’s mathas is limited to a few districts at best.

“For a caste or sub-caste, having a matha of their own has become important—that is the Karnataka model anyway. So if you are a caste and you do not have a matha, you feel something is incomplete here," said Chandan Gowda, political analyst, sociologist and faculty at Azim Premji University.

Other than promoting the interests of the community, most mathas run educational institutions, hospitals, hostels, orphanages, carry out mass marriages and in some cases like the Sirigere matha of Chitradurga, settle disputes. The influential Siddaganga Matha claims to have around 50,000 students in its schools, the Murugha Matha runs over 150 specialized institutions while the Tontadarya Matha in Gadag district run 89 educational institutions, offering courses in medicine, dentistry and engineering apart from primary and high schools. These mathas have also influenced government policy in the past—the head pontiff of the Tontadarya Matha joined farmers and others and successfully campaigned against a proposed 6 million tonne Posco steel plant, in Gadag, in 2011.

Other pontiffs have resorted to similar measures, making them an influential bargaining group, whose scope includes politics.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi were among thousands who wished Sri Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Matha, on his 111th birthday.

Though mathas claim not to get involved in politics, many have been known to select and endorse candidates—from parliamentary seats to local panchayat elections.

If latest reports are anything to go by, even contest elections themselves, many are inspired by the rise of chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh.

The head pontiff of Madara Channaiah Swamiji Matha that represents the Madigas, a socially backward community, had said that he was willing to “go to any extent" to defeat Congress minister H.Anjaneya, who was earlier the secretary of the Matha.

Modi has also mentioned the pontiff’s name in recent elections speeches, believed to be the key to breaking the AHINDA (acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) support base of Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah. The move could even the scales after the BJP was outplayed with the state government’s decision to accord a minority status to Linagayats. The decision not just threatened to split the BJP’s Lingayat and Veerashaiva voter base, but also to push mathas to openly endorse political parties.

Ramzan Darga, Director for the Centre of Vachana Studies in Bidar says that of the hundreds of caste based mathas, Lingayats, Vokkaligas and Kurubas are politically significant. Traditionally, Lingayats back the BJP and Yedyurappa, Vokkaligas side with the Janata Dal (Secular) and Kurubas back Siddaramaiah, who is from the same community.

Karnataka elections and the Mathas

“Usually, their political influence works behind the scenes. Occasionally, it’s done more openly," Gowda says. He cites the example of mathas openly backing Yeddyurappa in 2008, helping the BJP sweep the polls and form the government. Yeddyurappa reciprocated by doling out thousands of crores of rupees to the mathas, from whom the BJP now wants support.

But support is not always stated and could be inferred. “My followers will say that the chief minister has gone on this road (in front of the Matha) twice but he has not visited the Matha. But will say that Amit Shah came from all the way from Delhi to meet our Swamiji," the head of an influential Matha said, requesting anonymity. Narendar Pani, political analyst and faculty at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) said that most of these followers vote en masse to wrest better bargaining power and can decide seats in many constituencies that could have a bearing on the final outcome.

But the support remains discreet. As the head of Murugha Matha said, “We have to put a strategy, wait and watch."

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