Bengaluru: Former chief minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) chief Jagadish Shettar joined the Congress Monday after days of deliberations and intense discussions.
This transfer is anticipated to provide the Congress celebration a major enhance within the Lingayat assist base.
Shettar, denied a ticket by the BJP to contest the meeting elections to be held subsequent month, has already been given one from the Congress and can contest from Hubli-Dharwad (Central) seat.
The 67-year-old former CM, speaker and two-time chief of the Opposition, is among the largest leaders of the dominant and decisive Lingayat group within the north-western districts of Karnataka, or Kittur-Karnataka, which has a complete of fifty seats over six districts.
In 2012, Shettar had changed D.V. Sadanand Gowda as CM after the latter fell out with Yediyurappa. This regardless of Gowda having been nominated by the Lingayat chief for the publish following his resignation within the wake of Lokayukta’s report on unlawful mining in Karnataka.
“Generally, they (Lingayats) establish B.S. Yediyurappa as their chief. However they might see Shettar in second place,” mentioned Congress’s legislature celebration chief Siddaramaiah chatting with media individuals in Bengaluru Monday.
“They (BJP) insulted Yediyurappa by forcing him out of the CM’s publish mercilessly. That’s the reason he (Shettar) cried when he resigned. He has spoken with plenty of ache. The best way BJP handled him shouldn’t occur to any chief in any celebration,” he added.
In Karnataka’s closely caste-dependent politics, events are identified to hunt out the assist of particular communities. The BJP is closely reliant on the Lingayats and has had three chief ministers from the group of their 9 years in energy. D.V. Sadananda Gowda was the one Vokkaliga CM of the BJP.
The Lingayats reportedly account for almost 17 per cent of the state’s complete inhabitants, adopted carefully by the Vokkaligas at round 14 per cent.
Some studies recommend that these two communities vote en masse — as was seen in 2008 when the Lingayats got here out in full assist of Yediyurappa, after which in 2018 when the Vokkaliga group rallied behind the previous PM H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular).
The Congress is now highlighting Yediyurappa’s “injustice” and “ill-treatment” of the Lingayat group.
“Lingayats aren’t handled because the core of BJP, however merely a vote financial institution. Karnataka will witness a brand new large political churn due to how Lingayats had been mistreated by the BJP & particularly Two Vested Frequent Pursuits. Lingayats are set to return HOME to the Congress in 2023. A large win for @INCKarnataka (sic),” M.B. Patil, one of many largest Lingayat leaders within the Congress, mentioned in a Twitter publish.
Patil is taken into account instrumental in reaching out to Shettar and Laxman Savadi, one other Lingayat chief from Belagavi.
Shettar can be associated to Patil by veteran Congress chief Shamanur Shivashankarappa. Shettar’s son is married to Shivashankarappa’s granddaughter, whose different granddaughter is engaged to Patil’s son, indicating political alliances between highly effective households that reduce celebration traces.
In truth, the late-night discussions between Shettar and Congress Sunday had been held in Shivashankarappa’s son Ganesh’s residence in Bengaluru’s Sadashivanagar.
Donning a Congress scarf round his neck for the primary time Monday, Shettar instructed the media, “I respect B.S. Yediyurappa as he’s a senior chief of the group. Lingayat group members from completely different elements of the state known as me and requested me why there was injustice, it has pained us.”
Shettar first joined the Jana Sangh in 1967 and has since been related to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and eventually the BJP. He entered the meeting for the primary time in 1994 and received a complete of six consecutive phrases from Hubli Rural and Dharwad central.
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Congress’s relationship with Lingayats
The Congress celebration is actively pursuing the Lingayat assist base following almost three a long time of being deserted by the group after former chief minister Veerendra Patil was unceremoniously dismissed in October 1990 by then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi.
The group then moved to backing the erstwhile Janata Celebration and, lastly, started to provide its assist to the Yediyurappa-led BJP in 2008. The group moved additional away from the Congress when the Siddaramaiah-led Congress authorities in 2018 determined to accord a separate spiritual minority tag to the Lingayats.
Although this was a long-pending demand, the choice to attract a distinction between Veerashaivas, a sub-sect, and Lingayats was projected as an effort by Siddaramaiah to “divide” Hindu society.
Now, the Congress has Shettar to drive residence the purpose that the BJP has executed little to retain Lingayats’ assist and, hopefully, reclaim the misplaced voter base.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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