Concerned by the Congress government’s move to recommend religion status for Lingayats to garner the community’s support, the BJP is now trying to turn the idea on its head and make it a poll issue in its favour.
The BJP, which is trying to keep its Lingayat vote base intact, is said to be thinking of projecting the move as an effort to divide Hindus. The plan is to make this a part of its broader Hindutva agenda to take on the Congress. “We want to project it as a continuation of the Congress agenda of dividing Hindu society,” said a party source.
The saffron party is now waiting for the March 23 meeting of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha on the issue, to formalise its next course of action. The opposition from Veerashaiva Mahasabha national president and veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa to the religion tag move has instilled confidence in the BJP leadership, which is presently playing its cards close to its chest. The BJP is expecting that there will be some opposition to the issue from within the ruling party as well in the days to come.
Yeddyurappa reticent
Interestingly, BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa has desisted from going into the details of the party’s plans, but for reiterating that they would abide by the decision of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha. Union Minister Ananth Kumar has more openly described the Congress government’s move as an effort to divide society.
Sources close to Mr. Yeddyurappa said the party is in the process of getting inputs from different cross-sections of the Lingayat/Veerashaiva community and is eliciting their views on the religion status issue.
The BJP views Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s move as a “huge political gamble” that can go either way. But the Cabinet decision is also seen as a double-edged sword for the BJP as the Centre will have to take the call on the State’s recommendation now.
Interestingly, the BJP wanted to ignore the demand for separate religion status at the beginning. Later, it tried to enlist the support of non-political leaders from the community to oppose the demand. It was only after the Gujarat Assembly election results, which saw a close fight, that BJP leaders started publicly opposing the demand.