Chief Minister Siddaramaiah reportedly pulled up Ministers M.B. Patil and Eshwar Khandre for issuing conflicting statements on the demand for a separate religion tag for Lingayats on Wednesday.
While Mr. Patil supports the demand for a ‘Lingayat’ tag, Mr. Khandre is pushing for Lingayat/Veerashaiva tag.
The Chief Minister, during a Cabinet meeting, told the Ministers that their statements have been damaging the image of the government and the Congress in an election year.
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Sources in the Secretariat said Mr. Siddaramaiah told them to refrain from giving statements on the issue.
On Sunday, Mr. Patil claimed the Siddhaganga Mutt seer, Shivakumara Swami, supports the cause of a separate religion status for the community under the nomenclature ‘Lingayat’, and this was contested by Mr. Khandre.
Mr. Khandre said there was no difference between the Lingayats and Veerashaivas, while the seer, in a release on Tuesday, expressed support for the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha’s nomenclature of “Veerashaiva-Lingayat”.
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However, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra, who briefed the media on the Cabinet decisions, said the Lingayat issue was not discussed in the Cabinet meeting at all.