Lingayat seers sore over denial of BJP tickets to community legislators; warn of fallout

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: With seers of many Lingayat/Veerashaiva mutts reportedly unhappy over the denial of BJP tickets to noted community leaders in the name of infusing young blood into the party and the leadership stubbornly sticking to its stance and making no effort to correct its course, party leaders are worried if it will impact their prospects in the May 10 Assembly polls. While veteran BJP leader B.S.Yediyurappa has already gone into hibernation, another former CM, Jagadish Shettar is finding it hard to even get a ticket from Hubballi-Dharwad Central.

Former deputy chief minister, Lakshman Savadi quit the BJP and joined the Congress after the party refused to give him the ticket from Athani in Belagavi district. Several senior Lingayat MLAs, Mahadevappa Yadwad, Mahantesh Mamadapur, and Appu Pattanshetty have been denied tickets and many more are going to miss it in the third and final list of candidates.

Never in the past has the BJP high command 'disturbed' Lingayat/Veerashaiva legislators as long as they were winning elections and serving the party. Now after the denial of seats, some Lingayat MLAs and ex-MLAs are knocking on the doors of the Congress Party.

The BJP seems to be doing this as part of a well thought-out plan to stop giving importance to Lingayats/Veerashaivas and start focusing on other communities.  Sources close to a prominent Lingayat mutt in North Karnataka told News Trail that in the name of age, the BJP is forcing senior Lingayat leaders to take retirement from electoral politics.

Already, Delhi leaders have sidelined Yediyurappa who built the party brick by brick. Now, the high command has asked Shettar, another Lingayat leader to retire. The sources say that many of these leaders have been in the BJP for the last 20-30 years whereas Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai joined the BJP only in 2008.