Differences of opinion over the move to accord religious minority status for Lingayats, which could mar the prospects of political parties and their candidates, has reached the Election Commission.
The Veerashaiva Mahasabha’s plan to take out a jatha across the State before the elections to create “religious and voter awareness” has been dropped to avoid any controversy after Lingayat leaders took objection to it and complained to the commission.
The jatha, planned from April 30 to May 8, had also sought to tacitly appeal to the members to vote against those who have “divided the religion”.
On Thursday, president of the Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha and former Minister Basavaraj Horatti asked the commission to stop the jatha planned by the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, accusing it of fostering animosity between communities during the elections.
Mr. Horatti said political meetings would be part of the jatha, which is a violation of the model code of conduct. In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Horatti said the religious awareness jatha was for seeking votes for some and for appealing to vote against those seeking separate religion tag.
Sources in the Veerashaiva Mahasbha confirmed that the jatha, for which the commission had given permission, now stood cancelled to avoid any controversy. “The mahasabha leaders felt that a controversy around this time would not be good.”
While the commission had given permission with the condition that the participants would have to stick to religious and voter awareness, permission from respective returning officers had not come by. “As of Thursday, none of the returning officers has given permission. We thought it was best to drop it,” a senior Veerashaiva Mahasbha functionary said.
