Vinay Kulkarni woos Lingayats with tirade against Joshi, BJP

HUBBALLI: Congress Dharwad candidate

Vinay Kulkarni

is desperately trying to strike an emotional chord with

Lingayat

community members in the constituency.

It is said that members of the Lingayat community are miffed with Kulkarni for actively taking part in the agitation for separate religion status for Lingayats and it was the reason why he lost in the assembly election last year.

Kulkarni is now trying to consolidate Lingayat votes to ensure his victory. For the first time, he organized a Veerashaiva-Lingayat community meeting in Hubballi on Thursday.

Kulkarni spoke about how the Siddaramaiah government tried to uplift Lingayat community by ordering the display of Basavanna’s portrait in all government offices, naming of Vijayapura women’s university after Akkamahadevi and formation of Kudalsangama Authority, among other measures.

He also spoke about how BJP has allegedly suppressed the growth of Lingayat leaders. “Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar was sidelined in BJP because of

Pralhad Joshi

. Shettar was made to sit in the second row instead of the first row during Modi’s visit. It was just an example how Lingayat leaders in BJP are being pushed down. Congress has given and groomed many Lingayat leaders,” he claimed.

“Pralhad Joshi has not done anything for the Lingayat community and he has not groomed a single Lingayat leader,” he added.

“I studied about why Lingayats support BJP and found that most Lingayat voters are supporting BJP because of B S Yeddyurappa. During the recent assembly election, I realized that Lingayats stood with BJP with the sole objective of making Yeddyurappa the CM,” he added.

“It is high time that Lingayat votes are consolidated to support a Lingayat candidate in Dharwad, otherwise, we will have no voice,” he said.

Continuing his tirade against Joshi, he said, Joshi was treating Lingayats as his slaves. “As I am a Lingayat, he is trying a lot to curtail my growth by making baseless allegations and forcing some people to file an FIR against me. But, nothing will stop the Lingayat community from growing,” he added.

Folding his hands, an emotional Kulkarni requested Lingayats to change their mind-set, think seriously to elect him. If not, he claimed that Lingayats would have to fight for their survival in the coming days.

He also asked BJP to stop seeking votes in the name of Basavanna and challenged BJP and RSS cadres to display the portrait of Basavanna in all RSS offices if they truly had concern about Lingayats.

Speaking to TOI he said, “When I sought support of people from other communities including Muslims, they told me to first secure the support of my community. So I am trying to consolidate Lingayat votes in my favour. Joshi’s conspiracy theories and wicked strategies will not deter me from winning this election with the support of Lingayat voters.” He exuded confidence that he will win with a margin of 2 lakh votes against Joshi this time.