The BJP has a major problem on its hands in the twin coastal Karnataka districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, the heartland of the Sangh Parivar in southern India. Hindutva activists at the cadre-level belonging to organisations such as the Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and Hindu Jagarana Vedike (HJV) have broken formation to join a rebel Hindutva leader who is mobilising thousands of people in the region with a purpose: unseat Veerendra Heggade, the 21st Dharmadhikari or hereditary administrator of the 800-year-old Dharmasthala temple in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada.
Heggade also happens to be a BJP nominated member of the Rajya Sabha and was conferred the second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, soon after the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014. The protests against Heggade have changed colour considerably since they first started in 2012 over the death of Sowjanya, a 17-year-old girl who was raped and murdered.