Siddu-DK spat leaves Lingayats in the lurch

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT
Bengaluru

Lingayat leaders in the Congress party are not too happy with the ongoing tussle between Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar over the post of Chief Minister.

The statement of KPCC Campaign Committee President M.B.Patil that he too is a senior leader but would not like to get squeezed between a Kuruba and Vokkaliga leader in the fight for the CM gaddi much before the Congress Party gets a majority to form the next government, says a lot about the sentiments of Lingayat and Veerashaiva MLAs of the party.

There has been no Lingayat CM after M.Veerendra Patil became CM about three decades ago. Though, former minister late K.H. Patil had the qualities to become CM, he too missed the bus due to some reason. Even his son and Gadag MLA H K. Patil was tipped for the CM post but failed to make it to the third floor of Vidhana Soudha.

This factor has been haunting Lingayats for the last three decades and for this reason, they have switched to the BJP and have backed BS Yediyurappa. Recently, Congress MLAs belonging to the Lingayat community held two meetings to discuss their neglect. They are concerned that their community leader has not been made CM despite they being a strong force in North Karnataka. Unfortunately, the MLAs lack a leader who can convey their message to the high command.

H.K.Patil who could have led a delegation, is disappointed with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for launching a for the CM post leaving no scope for others. The denial of the CM post to a Lingayat leader may prove costly for the Congress in the polls. The Lingayats feel that M B Patil has been made KPCC Campaign Committee President only with the intention of making him a scapegoat in case the party performance is not good.