Bengaluru: The Karnataka Congress has accused the Janata Dal Secular of practicing black magic against it and party workers said they found evidence of black magic rites almost everyday.

The old Congress office in Bengaluru, had been taken over by the JDS for decades – but after a legal battle that went in the Supreme Court, JDS chief HD Deve Gowda was asked to hand back the keys.

Representational photo

Annamalai, a local Congress worker, said, “When the JDS moved out, bangles and lemons were thrown. One day we reached the office and found bottles thrown all over the building.”

Congress workers are warning others not to touch the little bottles wrapped in red cloth as they are supposedly a symbol of bad luck for the party. While some workers are too scared to entire the party office until rituals are done to counter what they call bad luck.

The Congress top-brass, headed by a rationalist chief minister, is in a dilemma. While trying to bring in anti-superstition laws, it’s also now wondering how to reassure its workers.

Kanatala Pradesh Congress Committee President G Parameshwara said, “We will do some sort of pujas… that’s our custom. These are the observations by workers – they said some lemons, etc were found. We are not worried about such things.”

The JDS, suspected of engineering the voodoo, is having a defiant laugh.

Deve Gowda said, “Congres must understand, person like me have seen ups and downs. I won’t stoop to such levels.”

This is not the first time black magic rites have hit Karnataka politics. In the previous Yeddyurappa regime, materials relating to voodoo were found near the state assembly, and the Congress is well aware what happened to the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

(Inputs from IBN)