After Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai got a reprieve in the BJP State executive meeting this week amid speculation of his replacement on account of “health concerns”, the Chief Minister is seeking to play “hard Hindutva” card by “freeing temples” through a legislation and bringing anti-conversion Bill.

The State executive meeting that concluded on Wednesday was marked by the curious absence of former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and his family who flew away to Dubai when the meet was underway.

Besides, Bommai’s political secretary MP Renukacharya added to the air of “uncertainty” by saying most legislators in the party expected a “Gujarat-like overhaul” of the Karnataka Cabinet, and asking those who have been ministers for long to give chance to new faces.

The Chief Minister’s position seemed to have weakened after the BJP lost the bypoll from Hangal in his home district in November.

State leaders and “dissidents” are taking BJP General secretary Arun Singh’s assertion that “BJP will fight the 2023 Assembly elections under Bommai’s leadership” with  a pinch of salt given his similar comments before Yediyurappa’s replacement, this year.

Bommai who carries a socialist legacy has recently been trying to secure his position within the BJP by introducing the anti-conversion Bill, and also another one to free an estimated 34,559 temples in the State from Government control. Bommai is taking lead in the South by bringing a law to “free Hindu temples” from the existing laws and rules that control them even as similar demands are made in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

 (Uttarakhand Government has earlier already made an announcement to this effect.)

“Temples have suffered in the hands of bureaucrats. It will be freed by our Government. We will bring a law that enables temple management to look after their own development,” Bommai said this week.

He also said worship places of other religions except Hindu are not under any law of the Government.

“Temple authorities did not have rights to utilise the Income generated from temples for their own development. It had to get nod from the senior bureaucrats. “This practice has to stop now,” said the CM, trying to re-establish himself before the central BJP leadership. Reports of the Chief Minister taking Ayurvedi treatment for his knee problem and going abroad had earlier created speculation about his health as Bommai himself denied them.