For over a week now, Prabhu Angadi, Ningappa Belligatti and Raju Aneppanavar, all members of the Lingayat group Basava Kendra, have been canvassing for the Congress in Hubballi. Lokesh Koravi, another member of the group, has been campaigning for the Janata Dal(S).
In the Babaleshwar constituency in Vijayapura district, represented by Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil, members of the Rashtriya Basava Dal campaigning for the Congress avoid coming face-to-face with supporters of the Pancha Peetha seers of the Veerashaiva faith who are canvassing for the BJP.
These slices of the campaign from across north Karnataka districts, where Lingayats/Veerashaivas are a significant number, indicate how the decision of the Karnataka government to accord “religious minority” status to “Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats (believers of Basava Tatva)” has stirred the caste cauldron ahead of the elections.
Divide within
While some reject the idea of breaking away from the Hindu fold, others are divided on whether the faith should be called “Lingayat” or “Veerashaiva/Lingayat”. The differences between the two factions are doctrinal. While Lingayats accept the legacy of the 12th century reformer Basaveshwara, the latter accept a more ancient Vedic legacy.
Though no-one is able to predict which way the vote of the community will finally swing, the government’s decision has an impact on electioneering. The community which forms 17% of the State’s population is split now, with seers of Lingayat and Veerashaiva maths and peethas — and their followers — divided.
Mate Mahadevi, head of the Basava Dharma Peetha at Kudalasangama, recently stirred up a hornets’ nest by giving an open call to support the Congress.
The national leaders of the BJP and the Congress are on a math-hopping spree — 11 by BJP president Amit Shah and six by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, at last count — testifying to the importance of the issue.
The BJP has described the government’s decision to give the Lingayat community an identity outside of the Hindu fold as “divisive politics” and done with an eye on polls, though it has not spelt out its final decision on the tricky issue.
The party has been accusing the Siddaramaiah government of raking up the issue just to prevent B.S. Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat leader, from becoming the Chief Minister again. The BJP, which has been seen as a pro-Lingayat party since the late 1980s, now seems to be apprehensive of losing its loyal vote base.
The Congress has said that the government has done no more than concede a long-pending demand of the community. However, there are wheels within wheels in the party. The Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha, which opposed the government’s move, is led by a Congress leader and former Minister, Shamanuru Shivashankarappa. His son Mallikarjun is in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet. Both are contesting on Congress ticket again. Other Cabinet members like M.B. Patil and Vinay Kulkarni are strong votaries for a separate religion tag.
The Janata Dal (Secular) has not come out clearly on the issue and does not have much to gain either way, with its strong support base among the Vokkaliga community. However, the party’s senior leader Basavaraj Horatti is now the president of the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha, a new outfit formed after breaking away from the Veerashaiva Mahasabha.
With elections a week away, no party is able to say with clarity who will lose or gain by the Lingayat row. Lingayat leaders in the BJP like Jagadish Shettar believe that the “poll gamble” will boomerang on the Congress, though many other leaders within his party are apprehensive. A Congress leader said the party “does not have very high expectations” and was wary of making it a poll pitch in rallies. “But even a 5% tilt in vote share towards us from the community will make a big difference,” he said.
