Siddu woos Lingayats, feted by seers

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wooed the Lingayat-Veerashaiva community at a programme in Basavakalyan town in Bidar district on Thursday.

The CM was felicitated by 160 Lingayat mutt seers on the occasion for officially declaring Basavanna – the 12th moral reformer, saint and founder of the Veerashaiva moment – as the cultural ambassador of Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah took the opportunity to announce the setting up of a Vachana University next year.

Vachanas are oral transmissions that preach the Lingayat dharma. The location of Basavakalyan is significant because of its cultural importance to the Lingayats. It is also home to a 108 feet statue of Basavanna.

The CM, who is a known admirer of Basavanna, said that the saint’s vision was an anti-caste and egalitarian one.

“Basavanna’s aim was to build a humane society without caste, class and inequality. Therefore, Buddha, Basavanna and Ambedkar are my role models. Their ideas are eternal,” Siddaramaiah said, adding that democratic values were inherent to the teachings of Basavanna and his followers, the Sharanas.

Overtures to community

The Veerashaiva-Lingayat community is regarded as one of two most politically dominant communities in the state.

The other is the Vokkaliga caste. Lingayat domination is witnessed in overrepresentation in the number of MLAs, ministerial positions and CMs in the past.

With the Lok Sabha elections mere months away, Siddaramaiah is intent on winning over the support of the community which has traditionally voted BJP. The wooing of the community, however, goes hand in hand with the CM’s commitment to the caste census, which he received recently.

Alleged leaks from the report suggest that Lingayats and Vokkaligas were now outnumbered by Dalits and Muslims, both communities with less political heft.

This has led to many Lingayats and Vokkaligas across party lines to oppose the report, which may lead to increasing the quota share of the more populous groups at the expense of the less populous ones.

Several Lingayat and Vokkaliga ministers from Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet have cosigned memoranda opposing the release of the caste census. This includes bigwigs like DK Shivakumar and MB Patil.

In the lead up to the 2018 Assembly election, the Congress had finished as the second largest party behind the BJP but ended up forming a coalition with JD(S).

One of the reasons behind the drubbing was Siddaramaiah’s support for a separate religion tag for Lingayats, which rubbed most of them the wrong way.

The tag excluded Veerashaivas for being well-disposed to “Vedic” traditions.

However, the BJP high command forcing BS Yediyurappa to step down as CM back in 2021 antagonised the Lingayats, especially the Banajiga sect, a section of whom split away and voted for Congress in the 2023 Assembly elections.