'I did not say all lingayats were corrupt': Siddaramaiah issues clarification

Mysuru: In the midst of the election heat in Karnataka, a clip of an interview given by the opposition leader Siddaramaiah has gone viral, leading to a war of words between Congress and the BJP.

Following allegations that Siddaramaiah had termed the whole Lingayat community as “corrupt”, the Congress leader issued a clarification saying that he was referring specifically to the current Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, who he believes is corrupt. “I have immense respect for Veerashaiva-Lingayats. We have given more than 50 tickets to these Lingayats,” he added.

Siddaramaiah alleged that his words were taken out of context by the BJP. “The BJP is trying to create a controversy by misreporting the facts,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP had accused Siddaramaiah of indulging in insulting a large community for political gain. “It is condemnable that Siddaramaiah, who had earlier tried to divide the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, has now made insensitive hate speech that all members of the community are corrupt,” BJP wrote in a tweet sharing the video clip of Siddaramaiah’s interview to a private TV channel.