A protocol dispute has emerged at the Mysuru Dasara procession after BJP MLA TS Srivatsa alleged that additional dignitaries were allowed to offer prayers to Goddess Chamundeshwari despite an earlier limit on the number of people permitted on the podium.
Srivatsa said the announced protocol allowed only eight dignitaries to offer puja during the procession. According to his account, the chief ministers of Kerala and Telangana, the Karnataka chief secretary and the wife of the Karnataka chief minister were subsequently allowed to climb the podium and offer floral tributes to the deity.
“This is a violation of the stipulated protocol,” Srivatsa said, questioning who authorised the additional participants. The allegation relates to the ceremonial arrangements around the Dasara procession, one of Mysuru’s most prominent public events, where access, security and participation are managed through formal administrative and police protocols.
The MLA said he would meet the Speaker, the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court and the Governor to submit a complaint. The report did not include a response from the state government, the Dasara administration, police authorities or the officials named in Srivatsa’s statement.
Srivatsa also criticised the police for stopping ministers, MLAs and MLCs during the Nandi Dhwaja puja. His comments raise a separate issue about how access restrictions were applied to elected representatives during the ceremony, though the report does not provide details of the instructions issued to police personnel or the reasons for stopping the legislators.
Protocol at large public ceremonies typically determines who may enter restricted areas, participate in rituals and occupy designated platforms. In Mysuru Dasara, those arrangements also have an operational dimension because the procession draws large crowds and requires coordination among organisers, police, elected representatives and visiting dignitaries. The reported dispute therefore centres on both ceremonial precedence and the implementation of crowd and access controls.
The allegations remain Srivatsa’s account, and no independent confirmation or official clarification was included in the supplied report. The next stated step is his proposed meetings with the Speaker, the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court and the Governor, where he said he would submit his complaint.
