Congress, JD(S) look to wrest Lingayat votes from BJP

BENGALURU: In a reaffirmation of the political dominance of Lingayats in Karnataka, the major parties have fielded candidates from the community in 10 of the 28 parliamentary constituencies. In as many as six of these seats, the candidates will lock horns with fellow-Lingayats.
The issue of separate religion tag for Lingayats does not figure anywhere in the Lok Sabha poll discourse, unlike in last year’s assembly polls when it was at centre stage.

“With the then Congress government taking proactive steps to recommend minority religion status for Lingayats just ahead of the assembly elections, it obviously became a poll issue. We had called upon Lingayat voters to support those who support our cause. But things are a little different now. We are not suggesting anything to voters,” said G B Patil, national general secretary of Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha, a vanguard of the separate Lingayat movement.
The Congress seems to have changed tack after realising that its pro-Lingayat religion stand was detrimental to its prospects in the last elections. While former chief minister Siddaramaiah has openly admitted that it was not prudent to have vocally supported the movement at a time when the BJP positioned itself as a pro-Lingayat party, Congress leaders like DK Shivakumar tendered an apology to the community. The move apparently yielded immediate dividends with the Congress wresting the Ballari Lok Sabha seat from the BJP, under the stewardship of Shivakumar, in the bypolls last year.
“We have been careful to take sensitivities of various communities into consideration this time. We don’t want to hurt anybody. The message is that the Congress is for an inclusive policy,” Shivakumar said.
That said, the Congress has not shunned caste calculations in its selection of candidates. It has fielded two top Lingayat leaders, who represented two of the three arguments that convulsed the community. Vinay Kulkarni, an ardent proponent of separate religion status for Lingayats, is the party’s candidate from Dharwad, while Eshwar Khandre, who was among those arguing that the tag should cover both Lingayats and Veerashaivas, will represent the party in Bidar. In both seats, the Congress is betting hard on its candidates’ hold over the community to wrest them from BJP, which espoused that both Lingayats and Veerashaivas are part of the Hindu community.
In all, the Congress-JD(S) combine has fielded Lingayat candidates in seven constituencies, while the BJP has Lingayat candidates in nine seats. Three BJP candidates from the community will take on non-Lingayat Congress-JD(S) candidates. This includes Tumakuru, where former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda is up against BJP’s GS Basavaraj (Nonaba Lingayat).
“It is a myth that the Lingayat voters are entirely with the BJP. That myth is going be broken in these elections,” said Khandre.
The ground reality is that the BJP has 36 Lingayat MLAs, while the Congress-JD(S) combine has 18 in the 224-member assembly.
“Irrespective of their changed stand, the Lingayat community will not forgive the Congress as it tried to divide the community. Though they are not talking about the separate religion issue now, people have not forgotten their folly,” said BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa.