An event to commemorate the centenary of a meeting between Mahatma Gandhi and Kerala’s social reformer and spiritual leader Narayana Guru, a champion of backward communities, would have usually passed off as just another socio-political event in Karnataka.

However, in the midst of an ongoing power tussle in the state between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah , an OBC leader from the Kuruba group, and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, who belongs to the dominant Vokkaliga community, the event held in Mangaluru Wednesday to mark the Mahatma-Narayana Guru meeting assumed political significance as it was seen as a possible indicator of roadmap of state politics.

The event at Mangalore University’s Mangalagangothri campus in Konaje also seemed to be a show of strength of the backward communities.

Naraya

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