The Congress, which had been earlier accused by a section of the BJP of being “anti-Lingayat”, on Monday questioned the saffron party for “ignoring Lingayat leaders.”
While Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had on Sunday distanced himself from the stance of a section of his party that claimed Congress’ PayCM campaign was “anti-Lingayat”, the Congress continued to corner the saffron party over the Lingayat issue. On Sunday, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah had said the anti-corruption campaign had nothing to do with caste or community.
On Monday, following reports of former Chief Minister and BJP MLA from Hubballi Rural Jagadish Shettar’s name not figuring in the list of dignitaries to share stage with President Droupadi Murmu, the Congress tweeted, “First, he was not given the Chief Minister’s post and later was denied Cabinet Minister’s post too. Now, he has no place in President’s programme. The BJP is unveiling its stance against Lingayats by deliberately dropping the name of Mr. Shettar.”
“The President’s programme is being held in Mr. Shettar’s constituency and he is the biggest Lingayat leader after Mr. Yediyurappa. Despite this, his name has been dropped. The BJP is silently implementing ‘Target Lingayat’ operation,” it said, taking an indirect dig at the camp aligned to B.L. Santhosh, BJP’s national general secretary (organisation).
In another tweet, urging Health Minister K. Sudhakar to resign over deaths due to failure in ambulance services, the Congress said that the BJP was taking shelter under communal and caste names if its failures are questioned.
According to an office-bearer of Veerashaiva–Lingayat Mahasabha, both parties are complicit in “curbing Lingayat leaders.” “The BJP that has accused the Congress of being anti-Lingayat is no better. In fact, the party used other Lingayat leaders to sideline big Lingayat leaders B.B. Shivappa and Basavaraj Patil Sedam, who had toiled hard for the party.”
