Quota wars intensify ahead of Assembly poll

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru/ Belagavi: Ahead of the crucial Assembly polls next year, Karnataka is fast turning into a caste cauldron with the dominant Vokkaliga community, who claim to constitute 16 percent of the state's population, upping the ante for a hike in their reservation from 4 to 12 percent.

The Vokkaligas are included under the 3A category of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Reacting to the memorandum submitted by Vokkaliga ministers and BJP legislators, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he has asked the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes to submit a report on the various demands of the Vokkaligas including more opportunities in jobs and admission for their youth.

A day earlier on Thursday, around one lakh members of the Panchamasali Lingayats, the dominant sub-sect in the Lingayat community, had hit the streets in Belagavi demanding that they be included under the 2A reservation category.

Responding to the demand, the state cabinet which met in Belagavi on Thursday, resolved not to take any decision on the inclusion of the Panchamasali community under 2A category till a discussion is held at an all-party meeting.

Senior ministers and legal experts have reportedly advised Bommai not to act in a hurry as it would provoke the existing communities in 2A category who would be apprehensive of a loss of opportunities. Already, the Billawa community has announced its decision to take out a padayatra from Dakshina Kannada to Bengaluru in support of their demand. The demands for higher quotas are being made after the government decided to increase SC/ST quotas