With three chief ministers kowtowing to him, Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swamy is without doubt, the most powerful seer in south India. After K Chandrasekhar Rao, Jaganmohan Reddy, now BS Yediyurappa has gone public with his belief in the Godman.
Yediyurappa was in Hyderabad on Friday to pay his respects to the Chinna Jeeyar Swamy after becoming the chief minister of Karnataka. A senior BJP leader told Filter Kaapi that the seer had earlier got an elaborate yagam organised at Yediyurappa’s residence “to make his path to the CM’s chair smooth”.
“The visit was a thanksgiving of sorts,” said this BJP leader who handles Karnataka affairs for the party.
A preacher of Vaishanavism, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy has 35 ashrams in the country. Apart from the politicians, a number of top industrialists and bureaucrats are known to be his ardent devotees. That includes Jupally Rameshwar Rao of My Home group, arguably the most powerful business group in Telangana today, with interests in both construction and media. Many believe it is Telangana chief minister KCR’s regular visits to the godman’s ashram that have elevated the seer’s stature among politicians.
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Even last week, KCR met the 62-year-old seer to discuss conducting a Maha Sudarshana Yagam in Yadadri where 3000 senior vedic pundits and 3000 assistant pundits will be involved. The Yagam for KCR and the Telangana state will be performed on 1048 yagna mandaps over a 100 acre area.
KCR and Chinna Jeeyar go back almost three decades and the CM reportedly sees him as his philosophical advisor. In November 2016, KCR in what many saw as a controversial move, made the seer sit on the chief minister’s chair at Pragathi Bhavan, his official residence-cum-office before occupying it himself.
KCR doesn’t see an issue in being open about his beliefs. He believes the seer’s blessings are good both for him, Telangana and the people of rthe state. His association with Chinna Jeeyar Swamy has also helped him acquire the image of a very staunch Hindu, politically significant in these times of polarisation of the electorate.
Jagan who otherwise is a practising Christian, too has been a fairly regular visitor to Chinna Jeeyar. He had visited him at his ashram to seek his blessings before he embarked on his 3600 km long padyatra in 2017. (pic below)
The electoral success of the two Telugu chief ministers has led others to believe that both have benefited from the seer’s blessings and advice. The addition of Yediyurappa is being seen in that context.
BSY who recently reverted to his earlier spelling of Yediyurappa from Yeddyurappa, would also want the Godman to ensure the Gods and the BJP leadership are on his side. That’s because he is already 76 years old, beyond the unofficial stipulated age of 75 to occupy the CM’s chair.
Chintala Ramachandra Reddy, former BJP MLA from Hyderabad’s Khairatabad constituency has been the Swamy’s devotee for the last 30 years. He says politics is never on the table when they meet the seer.
“We never discuss politics with him. Never. We take his blessings. There is none like him. But it is not as if he is a VIP swamiji. When ordinary devotees invite him to their grihapravesham, he goes,” says Ramachandra Reddy.
