• Devotees up in arms against authorities atop Chamundi Hill
• Shout slogans against the VIP culture, express anger over delay in darshan of the deity

Mysuru: The third Ashada Friday witnessed devotees expressing their anger over authorities for extending preferential treatment to the VIPs visiting Sri Chamundeshwari Temple atop Chamundi Hill, this morning. They shouted slogans against the VIP culture while they waited in queues for long hours inside the temple premises.

They were seen shouting ‘Dikkara Dikkara VIP galige Dikkara’ (Down Down VIPs) in anger. Devotees from Mysuru and surrounding district, who arrived at Hill temple as early as 6 am, had to wait for long hours as the number of VIPs visiting the Hill temple was more compared to previous two Ashada Fridays.

This morning VIPs including former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, State BJP President B.Y. Vijayendra, MLA K. Harishgowda, MLCs K. Vivekananda, C.T. Ravi, Raghu Kautilya and Suraj Revanna, Karnataka State Guarantee Schemes Implementation Authority Vice-Chairperson Pushpa Amarnath, Kannada actor Shashi Kumar among others visited the temple to seek the blessings of the presiding deity.

As the VIPs walked past them after darshan, devotees shouted slogans against them. The devotees said, while they had to wait for long hours despite arriving at the hilltop early in the morning for darshan of Goddess Chamundeshwari, the VIPs, who come at their convenience, were being provided easy darshan.

The devotees urged the authorities to stop the VIP culture and make way for them to have the darshan of Goddess Chamundeshwari with ease.