High command tells Chief Minister to put Lingayat issue on hold

Bengaluru: The Congress high summon on Wednesday requested that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah put on hold the issue of prescribing the Centre to give separate religion status to Lingayat faith.

The Party’s top leaders recommended the Siddaramaiah to talk about the issue with a few Lingayat leaders and MLAs of the party who are restricting the state government’s proposition.

The party additionally advised the Chief Minister to talk about it with the high summon before taking any decision regarding the matter.

According to the sources, Siddaramaiah is leaving to Delhi on Thursday night to go to the AICC plenary session planned on March 16, 17 and 18; he will talk about the issue with the Party’s top leaders there.

A senior leader said “The party needed to know ups and downs of giving minority tag to Lingayats and its effect on the party’s prospects in the coming Assembly elections,” the leader said. “The party will get notification from all the state leaders on the issue and propose whether to proceed or not,”

“Conceding minority status (to Lingayats) may cause problems to the government as a few religious leaders have increased their ante against the Congress-drove government presuming that its leaders are attempting to isolate the group for political pick gain,” the leader said. Despite the fact that the state Cabinet should take up the issue on Wednesday, the meeting was conceded to March 19.