Lingayat move will cost Congress 40 of 50 seats in northwest Karnataka: BJP leader

Senior BJP leader from North Karnataka, Umesh V Katti, said his party will win 40 of the 50 seats in northwest Karnataka because chief minister Siddaramaiah decided to break the Lingayat community.

In an interview with Sowmya Aji, Katti, who had once famously declared that North Karnataka should be a separate state and he should be the CM, said that only Yeddyurappa will become the CM. Excerpts:

What has been the impact of the minority religion tag for the Lingayat community?

As chief minister, Siddaramaiah should have concentrated on development, building dams and improving the lives of people. He shouldn’t have indulged in this move to split a caste purely for electoral gains. It is not worthy of a CM and he should not have done it.

He has learnt this brand of politics from his mentor (former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (S) president) HD Deve Gowda, but that will not work against a politician like BS Yeddyurappa.

Are you saying that the Lingayat issue will not benefit the Congress?
Siddaramaiah’s actions have ensured that BJP will sweep all the Lingayat dominant regions. I expect to get 40 out of the 50 seats in Bombay-Karnataka.

His whole intent was to ensure that Yeddyurappa does not become the CM. I am telling you, only Yeddyurappa will become the CM.

Are you not an aspirant for the CM’s post yourself?
I am not a 24x7 politician like Yeddyurappa. Only he and Deve Gowda think of politics from the time they open their eyes to the time they go to sleep. I have other interests as well.

According to the state government, the Lingayat decision was taken based on a demand from the community?
Nobody had asked for such a division. If we get minority status, we will welcome it, but he (Siddaramaiah) should not have split the community for that. We all revere Basavanna, but he is not the founder of the Lingayat religion, he is the one who spread it. To keep out those of us who don’t accept Basavanna as the founder of the religion is a purely political move to break our votebank. Also, the Lingayats comprise 20% of Karnataka’s population, so they don’t qualify for minority status, anyway.