The BJP is contemplating to project ‘next Karnataka Chief Minister’ from the Lingayat community after the exit of prominent Lingayat leaders – former Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar , ex-deputy-CM Laxman Savadi- from the party has led the Congress to build a ‘narrative’ that the saffron party has turned “anti-Lingayat.” Congress campaign committee chief M B Patil, a Lingayat himself, has claimed that the Lingayat tide is turning in favour of the Congress “after a long period” and he anticipates “ beginning of home coming of Lingayats” .
The BJP’s Lingayat leaders this week held a meeting with the community ‘s strongman and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa ‘s residence at Bengaluru to counter the Congress claim to the most dominant community in the state. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who is Karnataka’s election-in-charge for the BJP has also understood to have attended the meeting and said to have taken note of “suggestions “ for projecting a “Lingayat CM” to the central leadership.
Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai, also a Lingayat, questioned the Congress claim to the community saying that in last 50 years since 1967, the Congress has not made a Lingayat a Chief Minister except for the nine-month tenure of Veerendra Patil.
The denial of tickets to Shettar and Savadi by the BJP and their joining the Congress has given the latter a political opportunity to put the BJP on a back-foot and also point to the Yediyurappa’s “forced resignation” , last year, by the BJP high command. Shettar and Savadi has political influence in the Northern Karnataka and Congress is using them in most of the assembly segments of the region.
The Lingayat community forms about 14 to 17 per cent of the State’s population, mostly in northern parts of the State which the BJP counts as its strong vote-base even though the party has also sought to spread its wings in the Southern Karnataka which is dominated by Vokkaligas, the second most influential community in the state accounting for 11 to 12 per cent of the population. Scheduled castes are around 19.5 per cent and Muslims about 16 per cent in the state.
Congress, the main challenger to the BJP in the southern state, has claimed that the saffron party has “insulted senior Lingayat leaders” of the state by rejecting their claim to the tickets while the Congress is “backing them up as their candidates”.