Siddaramaiah

Rakesh

Priya Krishna

businessmen

Ravi Subramanya

Mayor

Devi Bhagavatha Navashakti Vaibhava

Cutting across parties, several politicians will participate in the nine-day eventRationalist chief minister’s son(in pic) is set to undo all that his father stands for: he is to inaugurate on Wednesday a first-of-its-kind nine-day convention of ‘tantris’.In the past, Siddaramaiah has often mocked his predecessors B S Yeddyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy for their faith in ‘tantris’ and ‘tantras’. But now, though he reportedly declined to inaugurate this event — which has the participation of several politicians including Siddaramaiah’s followers H M Revanna, A H Vishwanath and MLA— his son has stepped in to ‘keep faith’ with these tantris.“Siddaramaiah is an atheist. His refusal to inaugurate such sessions may have made Rakesh do the job. However, this shows the strong contrast between father and son,” an insider told Bangalore Mirror. Rakesh and Siddaramaiah are not known to be on the best of terms.Rakesh is also believed to have contributed funds to organise the event. Other politicians participating in the rituals during the event by tantris — who are the last resort for politicians andfor quick solutions to critical problems — include BJP city MLAs M Krishnappa andThe convention will have 108 tantris participating. Rakesh, as per the invite for the event, will inaugurate the convention that lists unusual things like Mahagurusi (to eliminate enemies) and Shrikala Shrichakra Pooja (to gain power and position).The convention is organised at Maratha hostel campus in Basavanagudi and will be flagged off byB S Satyanarayana. “This is the first-of-its-kind event happening in Bangalore where we are sending out a message that mudras are more powerful than mantras. The saints from Kerala will be performing over 60 homas and 15 parayanas over the nine days of rituals. This is to address several issues an individual faces at various levels and clear stumbling blocks that are carried from the past,” said Gottigere Shivanna, the organiser of the 7th All India SrimadInterestingly, Siddaramaiah’s close confidant, Revanna, will chair a session on Guru Pooje, the invite states.Hulikal Natraj, a rationalist, said, “It is scientifically proven that an individual cannot be influenced through tantras or mantras. This is just another event to mislead people.”