Veerashaiva-Lingayats seek State’s recommendation for inclusion in Central OBC list

In the election year, the BJP that has been besieged with demands from various caste groups for change of categories or status in reservation has another problem on the platter. On Sunday, the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha reiterated its earlier demand and urged the State government to recommend inclusion of all Veerashaiva-Lingayat sub-sects in the Central OBC list.

“The State government should immediately send the memorandum to add all the Veerashaiava-Lingayat sub-sects to the Centre for inclusion in the Central OBC list. The memorandum has been given on multiple occasions earlier,” Mahasabha’s secretary general Eshwar Khandre told presspersons here after the general body meeting. He said: “If it is not done, the general body of the mahasabha has passed a resolution to launch agitation at the hobli level and taluk level demanding the same to bring pressure on the government.”

Currently, 14 of the 89 Veerashaiva-Lingayat sub-sects are in the Central OBC list for education and employment avenues, and the demand for inclusion of all the sub-sects that are spread across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Goa has been pending for some time.

Incidentally, an attempt by the then Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in November 2020 to secure State Cabinet nod to recommend all Veerashaiva-Lingayat sub-sects for the OBC status in the Central list had been allegedly nixed by the BJP Central leadership owing to political reasons. The rise of BJP has been largely credited to a huge support by the Veerashaiava-Lingayats, especially in Bombay-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions, and the mahasabha’s resolution increases the pressure on the BJP.

“A large population of Veerashaiva-Lingayats has been denied opportunities in education and employment since they are not part of Central OBC list. The demand is being made to set right the anomaly,” Mr. Khandre, who is also Congress working president, said. He, however, refused to react on the political implications of the demand by the community that has been reiterated in the election year.

Mahasabha sources said that the demand has not been new as the community had been petitioning the State government for a long time to recommend the community for inclusion to the OBC list, and a similar request has been made to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai too.  

Meanwhile, the mahasabha also on Sunday urged the State government to install the statue of 12th century saint-philosopher Basavanna on Vidhana Soudha premises as per an earlier decision of the Cabinet. “The statue should be installed on Vidhana Soudha premises as early as possible,” Mr. Khandre said.

Another significant decision taken in the general body meeting was renaming the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha as Akhila Bharath Veerashaiva-Lingayat Mahasabha, a long pending demand from the sub-sects of Lingayats, especially during the movement to demand separate religion status to Lingayats in 2017-2018.

Mahasabha president Shamanur Shivashankarappa was also present.