Cong Veerashaiva-Lingayat leaders seek OBC status to community

Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress leaders from Veerashaiva-Lingayat community Thursday met Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and demanded that the government recommend to the Centre, granting of the OBC status to the community.

The leaders also sought setting up of Veerashaiva-Lingayat Development Corporation.

The delegation that met Chief Minister in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara included- KPCC Working President Eshwar Khandre, Home Minister M B Patil, senior legislators Shamanur Shivashankarappa and S R Patil, among others.

“Those in Veerashaiva-Lingayat community who are backward- socially, economically and in education- for them Veerashaiva-Lingayat Development Corporation has to be set up.

All of us leaders and MLAs have submitted a memorandum to theChief Minister,” Khandre told reporters after the meeting.

“Also, we have requested to recommend inclusion of Veerashaiva-Lingayat in the Other Backward Class (OBC) list at the Centre. CM and DCM have responded positively,” he added.

Leaders said, various sub-sects of the community are already on the OBC list in the State.

Patil, who was part of the delegation, said there was no politics involved in it.

Congress leaders’ demand is being seen as a move by the party to regain its lost ground with respect to the community’s support during the assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

The Veerashaiva-Lingayat community that owes allegiance to the 12th century “social reform movement” initiated by Basaveshwara has a substantial population in Karnataka, especially in the northern parts of the state, has sided with the BJP.

Veerashaiva-Lingayats are estimated to form 17 percent of the state’s population and considered to have a significant presence in about 140 out of total 224 assembly constituencies in the state, and are decisive in about 90 seats.

Interestingly, the community was a divided house ahead of the assembly polls amid move by the previous Congress government lead by Siddaramaiah to accord “religious minority”status to the Lingayat faith.

The demand for a separate religion tag to Veerashaiva/Lingayat faiths had surfaced from the numerically strong and politically influential community, amid resentment from within over projecting the two communities as the same.

While, one section led by Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha had asserted that Veerashaiva and Lingayats are the same and religious status be given to them; the other group wanted it only for Lingayats as they believe that Veerashaivas are one among the seven sects of Shaivas, which is part of Hinduism.