Bengaluru, 26 Aug

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday alleged that the BJP and its associates are behind the "conspiracy" and "smear campaign" against Dharmasthala, and claimed that an internal rift within the saffron party is the cause for it. He alleged that an internal fight between two groups in the BJP was the reason for the "conspiracy".

Also targeting the BJP's "Dharmasthala Chalo" movement and a massive rally planned in Dharmasthala on 1 September, he urged Veerendra Heggade, the Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala Manjunatha Swamy Temple not to allow the holy place to be misused for politics.

"The BJP is doing politics in religion. They were quiet all these days. Their party leaders had welcomed the SIT probe. The family (of the Dharmadhikari) have also welcomed the SIT probe. We are making efforts to bring the truth out. Now they (BJP) are trying to make Dharmasthala impure," he said.

"It is the BJP and its associates who conspired and tried to smear a black mark on Dharmasthala. Now they are trying to cover it up fearing that we may disclose the names. We don't want to do politics," he said.

A controversy erupted after a complainant, later arrested on charges of perjury, claimed burying a number of bodies, including those of women with signs of sexual assault, in Dharmasthala over a period of past two decades, with the implications pointing towards the administrators of the local temple.

The BJP has been protesting against targeting the temple and has hit out at the government for its inaction on the "smear campaign" against Dharmasthala.