Race for the Lingayat vote

The rush for the support of the dominant Lingayat community in Karnataka who constitute 17 per cent of the state’s population, has begun in right earnest ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls. Amidst conflicting reports that the polls could be preponed and held along with the Gujarat polls in November, top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Bengaluru on the same day-March 31. Rahul rushed to meet the seer of the Siddaganga Mutt, the prominent mutt of the Lingayats , to pay obeisance to the late seer Shivakumara Swami while Shah followed a day later.

The Lingayats who rever 12th century reformer Basavanna, and can determine the outcome in 90-100 constituencies of the 224 in the state, are no doubt a prize catch for any party hungry for power in the southern state. The Congress which wrecked its equation with the community in the 1990s after the abrupt removal of late Veerendra Patil, a Lingayat from the CM post, is desperate to rebuild its rapport with the Lingayats. So much so that Siddaramaiah when he was CM, ordered that pictures of Basavanna be installed in all government offices.

That however was not enough to propel the Congress to power on its own in the 2018 polls when the party lost out because of what many Congressmen aver, was mishandling of the Lingayat-Veerashaiva row over religion tag for the community.

This time round, the Congress does not want to take a wrong step and antagonise the community. Nor does the ruling BJP which knows there is simmering discontent among Lingayats after the community’s icon B.S. Yediyurappa was told to quit as CM and make way for his shishya, Basavaraj Bommai, again a Lingayat.

So even if Yediyurappa is out of the saddle, he continues to have a powerful say in the functioning of the government.

That brings up the pertinent question: which way will the Lingayats vote this time? Will they like they have done in the past 30 years, back the BJP again or is the community looking at alternatives?

There has been no drop in the doleouts for the mutts in the state. But there is enough proof that the Lingayats can also swing the other way which was proved in the Hangal Assembly bypoll last year when the Congress won the prestigious constituency which has a large number of Lingayat voters, defeating the BJP. And this happened in a seat adjoining CM Bommai’s very own Shiggaon constituency.

There is also the question whether Yediyurappa will put his heart and soul to secure the unstinted support of the Lingayats for the BJP this time. The ageing politician has largely confined himself to the shadows after his exit allowing Bommai to do the talking. There are reports that he is none too happy with the manner in which his son B.Y. Vijayendra was treated by the BJP leadership and denied a seat in the 2018 Assembly polls.

With Bommai yet to emerge as the mascot of the community, those across the political spectrum will be waiting to see if BSY throws all his might behind the BJP campaign this time. And so will be Congressmen who are hoping to split the Lingayat vote in their favour and seize power.