Members of the electorally influential Vokkaliga community today staged protests in parts of Karnataka, decrying the removal of Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and threatened to observe the swearing-in day of the new leader Jagadish Shettar as a "black day".
Vokkaliga Sangha (Association) members led by Nanjavadoota Swami held a more than four-hour long meeting, deliberating on what they described as the "unceremonious" replacement of Gowda by Lingayat leader Shettar by the ruling BJP.
Gowda, a Vokkaliga, has been shown the door despite giving good governance, Swami said. Lingayats form the dominant community in the state, followed by Vokkaligas.
The activists later took out a procession through the main roads of the town, leading to traffic snarls in and around the crowded city market areas.
The swearing-in ceremony of the new chief minister is likely to be held either tomorrow evening or on July 11. At Chennapatna, Vokkaliga community members burnt effigies of BJP leaders.
Meanwhile, JD(S) supremo H D Devegowda, an influential Vokkaliga leader, dismissed the charge that the Gowda administration was functioning according to his diktat, saying he had not spoken to Gowda in the last seven months.
