Lingayat issue is not an election issue: CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah declared in a press meet that the State Cabinet’s decision to grant ‘religious minority’ status to the Lingayat/Veerashaiva Lingayat community was not an election issue. He said that the issue was not initiated by his government, but was merely represented to it by the Lingayat leaders. The government turned it over to the Karnataka State Minorities Commission, which handed it to the committee headed by retired High Court Judge H.N Nagamohan Das and was later, accepted by the State Cabinet which made the decision. He also clarified that the proposal for the ‘religious minority’ status came before the previous BJP government.

Retorting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign that are laden with accusations against the Congress government, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the electorate was disgusted by his campaign and added that it was filled with lies. He was confident of the Congress winning in Karnataka and viewed it as a precursor to the results of the 2019 General Elections.

Mr. Siddaramaiah also spoke about JD(S) leader H.D. Deve Gowda, saying that the latter had never helped in his political career- in being appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister in the J.H. Patel Government and the N. Dharam Singh Government. He said that his political potential was identified by former Chief Minister the late Ramakrishna Hegde.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister candidate from BJP B.S. Yeddyurappa, who spoke after the CM, attacked the State Government for raking up the Lingayat issue in order to avoid an electoral setback. He accused the government of dividing the community based on religion and making the matter an election issue.