Karnataka Polls: Congress seeks to corner BJP over Lingayat self-respect, BJP hits back

The BJP on Monday launched a counter offensive to the Congress’s campaign that it had hurt the pride of the Lingayat community by ill-treating its tall political figures like former chief ministers BS Yediyurappa, Jagadish Shettar, and former deputy CM Laxman Savadi.

The Opposition Congress hit out at the BJP after formally admitting Jagadish Shettar into the party. The six-time BJP MLA from Hubli-Dharwad Central snapped his four-decade old association with the BJP on Sunday, miffed over the denial of the party ticket to contest the May 10 assembly polls.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress President (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar on Monday admitted Shettar into the party and issued a party ticket to contest from the same seat in Dharwad district. The Lingayat leaders were leaving in hordes to protect their own self-esteem, Shivakumar said.


The KPCC president described Shettar as a political leader with spotless reputation and claimed that he had received requests from many local BJP leaders from districts including Shettar’s fans to admit them also into the party. He said he had allowed the local units to take their requests forward.

Lingayats, which is also the state’s largest community, would stand by the Congress the way it did during the Congress reign of SM Krishna (1999-2004), Shivakumar said.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, a Lingayat leader himself, said the community would remain with the BJP as long as their leader Yediyurappa was with them. The Congress would respect Shettar first and throw him out later as it had done with other leaders, he said. The lotus would bloom in constituencies where leaders have left the party, he told media persons in Mysuru.

The BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi sought to know from AICC leader Rahul Gandhi how many Lingayat leaders became Karnataka CM under the Congress rule. The party, Trivedi said, unceremoniously removed tall Lingayat leader Veerendra Patil (in 1990) and Indira Gandhi defeated S Nijalingappa. The BJP, on the other hand, had three chief ministers from the Lingayat community out of the four it had.