BENGALURU: Determined to challenge the
Congress narrative in the Lingayat belt,
BJP has decided to rework its campaign strategy and play the “sympathy card” to kindle sentiments in favour of its chief ministerial candidate, BS
Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat himself.
“Vote for BJP this time. Else, you will not get a Lingayat chief minister for more than a decade”: this will be the emotional appeal from BJP to the Lingayat community, a dominant political force in 100-odd assembly constituencies across the state.
BJP’s move is expected to help counter Congress, which, the saffron party says, has been cavalier in its approach to the community. BJP plans to portray the Congress move to give religious minority tag to
Lingayats as a plot to target Yeddyurappa.
“As the poll temperature rises, we will drum up support among Lingayats for Yeddyurappa; the efforts will be similar to those made in 2008 when we could successfully send out the message that he has been deprived of the chief minister’s chair by JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy’s deceit,” a senior BJP leader told TOI.
Union HRD minister and BJP election in-charge of Karnataka Prakash Javadekar said: “We will tell ordinary Lingayats that the promise of according religious minority status made by the Siddaramaiah government was only a conspiracy to prevent a Lingayat leader like Yeddyurappa from becoming the CM.”
“The demand of Lingayats for an independent religion status and separation from Veerashaivas is more than 100 years old. Siddaramaiah drove a wedge between Veerashaivas and Lingayats only after BJP announced Lingayat strongman Yeddyurappa as its CM candidate a year ago. Lingayats know the issue was politicised, keeping in view the assembly polls and to prevent a fellow Lingayat from becoming CM,” a BJP MLA from Hubballi-Dharwad region said.
The party has asked its cadres to go on a high decibel campaign about the “plot” against fellow Lingayat Yeddyurappa. A trailer of sorts to this effect was unveiled recently when BJP national president Amit Shah, at a convention of coconut growers in Tiptur, said: “The Siddaramaiah government mooted this proposal not because of love for Lingayats but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming the chief minister.”
Tapping the vote
“There is a significant chunk of Lingayat population in Hyderabad-Karnatak which has consistently elected more Congress MLAs than BJP because of historical factors. It is politically imprudent to say that BJP will lose in these districts when it has not been winning big time. In Mumbai-Karnataka districts, the Lingayat issue is unlikely to convert into votes for Congress as the region is under the influence of Chhatrapati Shivaji who espoused the Hindu cause. In central Karnataka districts of Tumakuru, Shivamogga and Davanagere, Lingayats are politically aware and their caste affiliations are much stronger,” a BJP leader said.
‘Bias in postings’
“Siddaramaiah has worked against dominant castes from the time he came to power and this was evident in bureaucratic postings. All Lingayat officers in the civil and police administration have been denied prime executive postings and no special grants were allotted to the community in the first four years of his tenure,” a KAS officer said. But what has angered the community the most is the leaked caste census data, which tried to reduce the Lingayat population in the state to 9.8% from what was believed to be around 17%. “The caste census data was targeted at stripping the community of the ‘dominant caste’ status,” a Lingayat BJP leader said.
Consolidation on cards?
“The controversy is now being fuelled by a few Lingayat politicians who are backed by the education lobby and by seers who are seeking instant popularity. There are around 3,000 seers (swamijis) in the nearly 2,000 mutts of the community and the issue is being used to settle personal scores,” a senior BJP leader said. “The ordinary Lingayat is of the view that Siddaramaiah is responsible for this, a Lingayat consolidation is likely to happen at the last minute.”
