The Bharatiya Janata Party is learnt to have decided to tread cautiously on emotive issues such as the demand for religion status to Lingayats, separate State flag, and “imposition” of Hindi, rather than launch a counter debate in public.
According to sources, the BJP State unit — which had a three-day session with national president and key strategist Amit Shah which concluded on Monday — has come to the conclusion that it should not fall into the “trap” laid by Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on these issues.
“It is our party’s stand that these issues are part of a political game plan of Mr. Siddaramaiah. The timing of these issues — in the run-up to the Assembly elections — indicates his political motive. So we too have decided to tackle them strategically,” a senior BJP leader said.
“If the Chief Minister was really serious about issues concerning Kannada, why did he wait four and a half years after assuming office,” he asked, adding that BJP’s strategy would be to create awareness on “political interests” behind these issues.
BJP sources claim that feedback from volunteers who took part in the door-to-door visits as Vistharaks have shown that there is not much empathy with leaders who are demanding religion status for Lingayats, especially women. So the party wants to go before the Lingayats sometime later to tell them that they have the opportunity to elect a leader from their community, B.S. Yeddyurappa, as the next Chief Minister if they support the BJP instead of supporting a “divisive agenda”.
“We will wait and watch how the issue unfolds. As and when the need arises, BJP’s Lingayat leaders, led by Mr. Yeddyurappa will meet religious heads and prominent personalities to acquaint them with the chief ministerial opportunity for the community,” sources said. However, the BJP does not want to openly oppose the issues, but only oppose the “political intentions” behind them.
These issues are bound to come up for discussion when the state core committee meets Mr. Shah in New Delhi in the last week of this month.