By agreeing to accord a religious minority status to the Lingayats who follow the 12th century social reformer, Basavanna, Karnataka chief minister Mr Siddaramiah has cleverly forced the BJP on the back foot.
In the process, he has made sure that the fight for the 100- odd crucial seats from north Karnataka in the 224-member assembly, polls for which are scheduled in mid-May, will become extremely intense; even fierce.
The BJP banks heavily on the support of the Lingayat community which is largely dominant in the north Karnataka districts of Belgavi, Vijapura, Bagalkote, Bidar, Bellary, Kalburgi, Yadagiri, Raayachooru, Gadag, Dharwad, Haveri and Koppala. This is evident from past trends when the BJP scored heavily in the 2008 elections to romp home.
The same party,however, lost badly in 2013 when the Lingayat votes were divided with the community favouring former chief minister, Mr B S Yeddyurappa and his newly formed party the Karnataka Janata Paksh, over the BJP.
As a leading Lingayat himself, Mr Yeddyurappa, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate today commands sizeable influence among the community. Even otherwise, the Lingayats who account for nearly 17 per cent of the state’s population, have generally been known to back the BJP.
Mr Siddaramiah’s move to accept the recommendations of the hastily constituted Nagamohan Das committee’s report on the controversial issue has, however, already helped the ruling Congress to realise its objective of driving a wedge between the community’s two major sects, the Veerashaivas and Lingayats.
The former are worshippers of Shiva and practice rituals steeped in Hindu culture. The Lingayats, who follow Basavana, on the other hand, are rooted to his teachings which spoke against caste and the Vedic rituals.
By successfully splitting the community over the controversial issue, the ruling Congress has created quite a flutter in the BJP which, from all indications available here, does not know what has hit the party.
Even though it was aware of the Congress’ move to divide the Lingayat community, for some reason its leaders did not anticipate that the chief minister would move so fast.
In fact, Mr Siddaramiah not only appointed the Das committee, he even ensured that it submitted its report within two months instead of the six months’ extension that it had sought earlier.
After two meetings on the issue earlier, the cabinet yesterday took the decisive call to accept the panel’s report. It has now sent its recommendations to the Centre for approval.
Significantly, the ruling Congress would benefit even if the Centre delays its response or does not accept its proposal. As far as the Siddaramiah government is concerned it has taken a decision to grant minority religion status to the Lingayats who follow the teachings of Basavanna.
That way, it has made public its intention,much to the delight of those demanding the minority religion tag.
Inevitably, therefore, the BJP will be forced to redraw its plans now if it has to woo the Lingayats again, with the community already having been split now.
Luckily for the party though, the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha , it is learnt, .has decided to contest the government’s decision with over 30 pontiffs belonging to the Veerashaiva sect also promising to wage a “ religious war. ”
Interestingly, Mr Yeddyurappa has refrained from making any comment on the government decision so far ,repeatedly arguing that he would wait for the decision of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha.
Incidentally, the most significant benefit to the Lingayat community, from the grant of a minority tag, would accrue to the scores of big wigs who run numerous educational institutes in north Karnataka.
All of them will be exempt from the Right to Education Act. This, in itself, is a huge spin off for them which could help mellow the opposition to the government move.
For the time being though, chief minister Mr Siddaramiah has set the cat among the pigeons and is gleefully watching the discomfort of the BJP. Overall, the move would lead to a major political tussel in the state and only time will tell who the end beneficiary would be.