Bengaluru: A bit of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat group has thrown its weight behind the Congress for the ten Might Karnataka meeting elections and determined to not again the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) citing lack of respect for a gaggle that has firmly stood behind the celebration since 2008.
A discussion board known as the ‘Karnataka Lingayat Mattu Veerashaiva Vichar Vedike’, comprising thinkers from the group, has given a name to defeat the BJP within the upcoming elections as simmering resentment boils over the alleged “ill-treatment” of Lingayat strongman and former four-time state chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa since 2019.
Yediyurappa, 80, is presently serving as a member of the BJP’s parliamentary board committee. He had led the BJP to energy in Karnataka for the primary time in 2008 and final grew to become CM in 2019 after the Kumaraswamy authorities misplaced its majority.
“The BJP doesn’t want Lingayats. Lingayats don’t want the BJP,” said a letter by the discussion board dated 6 Might however launched on social media Sunday.
“The choice has been taken by your entire group. As soon as they (BJP leaders) have mentioned they are not looking for Lingayat leaders, why ought to we stay with them?” V.S. Natraj, a director of the central committee of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, informed ThePrint Sunday.
“The celebration (BJP in Karnataka) was constructed by Yediyurappa, B.B. Shivappa and a number of other different leaders. These days there was no BJP authorities on the Centre or state, nor anybody to fund us on the time, however we stood by the celebration, introduced it to energy and gave them 25 out of 28 seats in 2019 (Lok Sabha polls),” he mentioned.
In accordance with Natraj, it was the Lingayats who had introduced the BJP to energy not simply in pockets the place they had been the dominant group but in addition helped sway well-liked opinion in favour of the celebration in different components of Karnataka.
Talking to the media in Hubballi Monday, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai mentioned: “The Lingayat discussion board is a fictional organisation. It doesn’t exists in any respect.”
“The Veerashaiva is a really massive group and it isn’t below any organisation. Quite a lot of respect is given to the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, however it isn’t appropriate to make use of any organisation for the election goal. If 4 or 5 individuals say one thing, does it change into the voice of the Lingayats? The Lingayat group is like an ocean. The Lingayat Discussion board is an organisation that emerged through the election,” he mentioned.
In accordance with unofficial estimates, the Lingayats are believed to account for 17 per cent of the state’s inhabitants, and 10 of the 23 chief ministers of Karnataka have been from the group. The BJP, in 9 years of rule in Karnataka, has had three Lingayat chief ministers.
“The central management of the BJP did nothing to cease leaders like Arvind Bellad and Basanagouda Patil Yatnal from talking in opposition to Yediyurappa brazenly. Nor did they take motion in opposition to Ok.S. Eshwarappa for making a written criticism to the Governor in opposition to Yediyurappa when he was the chief minister,” Natraj mentioned.
This, he alleged, was a ploy by leaders like B.L. Santhosh, BJP’s nationwide common secretary (organisation), to sideline Lingayat leaders in Karnataka.
Elections for all 224 seats in Karnataka are scheduled for 10 Might and counting can be held three days later.
The developments come even because the nationwide management of the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, continues with the blitzkrieg of roadshows and rallies throughout the state to assist the celebration retain energy within the final leg of campaigning.
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‘Why do they arrive to us?’
The final time a authorities had retained energy in Karnataka was within the early Eighties and the BJP has positioned its religion in Modi to assist break this jinx.
In July 2021, the BJP compelled Yediyurappa to step down as Karnataka chief minister — one thing that the Lingayat group took to coronary heart — with the celebration’s central management giving no rationalization for a similar. The Lingayat strongman had even shed tears earlier than placing down his papers.
The BJP then named Basavaraj Bommai, additionally a Lingayat, as CM however he doesn’t get pleasure from the identical stature as Yediyurappa inside the group.
Senior leaders like Jagadish Shettar, a former chief minister, and Laxman Savadi, amongst others, had been denied BJP tickets for the upcoming meeting elections and have since joined the Congress.
Shettar had alleged final month that it was Santhosh who was accountable for the sidelining of Lingayat leaders in Karnataka.
“B.L. Santhosh says that he doesn’t need the votes of Lingayats. Then why do they arrive to us? They are saying that they are not looking for the votes of Muslims. Then why do they ask for his or her votes?” Shamanur Shivashankarappa, veteran Congress chief and president of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, informed reporters in Hubballi Saturday.
Shivashankarappa, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Ok.C. Kondaiah and Mohan Limbikai, amongst different leaders, visited the influential Moorusavir Mutt in Hubballi-Dharwad Friday.
In accordance with a report in The Hindu, this assembly was additionally attended by seers from close by areas corresponding to Navalgund, Rayanal, and Rudrakshi Mutt amongst others, fuelling hypothesis that the group was not making gentle of the “humiliation” of its leaders.
The group has additionally reacted sharply to the creation of two new classes within the backward lessons checklist in response to calls for by the Panchamasali sub-sect to be included within the 2A class, which has a 15 per cent quota as in opposition to their current class which has simply 5 per cent.
The Bommai authorities first proposed to provide the protesting Vokkaligas and Lingayats (each demanding elevated reservation advantages) the extra allocation from the economically weaker part (EWS) quota. When this was rejected, they reacted by eradicating Muslims completely from the backward lessons checklist.
The Muslims had been within the 2B class of the backward lessons checklist, which has a 4 per cent quota, however Bommai proposed to equally distribute this allocation between the 2 new classes that features Vokkaligas and Lingayats.
In Karnataka’s Belagavi, too, a number of seers have tried to influence the Lingayat group to not again the BJP with a view to include the rising affect of Ramesh Jarkiholi, the sugar baron known as “Sahukar”, folks conscious of the developments informed ThePrint.
A disqualified Congress legislator, Jarkiholi had joined the BJP in 2019.
Congress eyes Lingayat vote-base
The Congress is actively pursuing the Lingayat help base after almost three many years of isolation by the group following the unceremonious elimination of former chief minister Veerendra Patil from the highest chair in October 1990 by then celebration president Rajiv Gandhi.
The group had then moved to backing the erstwhile Janata Celebration and at last consolidated behind Yediyurappa in 2008.
The Lingayats moved additional away from the Congress when the Siddaramaiah-led Congress authorities in 2018 determined to accord a separate minority-religion standing to the Lingayats.
Though this was a long-pending demand, the choice to attract a distinction between Veerashaivas (a sub-sect, however used interchangeably with Lingayats) and the Lingayats was projected as an effort by Siddaramaiah to “break Hindu society”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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