All is not well within the Congress over the controversial issue of granting minority religion tag to the Lingayats.

Much as chief minister Siddaramaiah would like to provide the facility to the sect demanding the minority status, if only to split the vote bank of the BJP, late last night’s Cabinet meet ing proved that it could be a difficult exercise.

Supporters of the proposal in the Cabinet were quite vocal in endorsing the move, in particular irrigation minister M B Patil, as he himself has been spearheading the meetings and agitations over the issue.

In fact, he even went to Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to gather support from the Linayats in that region. Predictably, it is a known secret that he has the full backing of the chief minister.

Conversely, ministers like Eashwar Khandre and Mallikarjun, however, vehemently opposed the move in the Cabinet yesterday arguing that it would distance the Lingayat community from the Congress while pushing it further into BJP lap.

The meeting which continued for over three hours failed to find an amicable solution, forcing the chief minister to call for another round on 14 March. The Cabinet, incidentally, was discussing the 200-odd page report submitted by the seven-member panel, headed by former judge of the Karnataka High Court, N Das.

The panel was set up by the state’s minority commission to look into the demand of the Lingayats at the instance of the Siddaramiah government.
It had favoured the grant of minority tag to the Lingayat community from within the overall sect which comprises the Veerashaivas as well.

The Lingayats, per se, are followers of 12th-century social reformer, Basavanna, who advocated women’s empowerment in addition to the abolition of idol worship and the associated rituals. The Veerashaivas, who also a part of the Lingayats, however, follow rituals and religious practices akin to the Hindus.

This difference has forced the Lingayats to demand a separate religion tag for themselves while even seeking a minority status, something which the Veerashaivas are totally against, arguing that there is no difference between the two sects. Accordingly, they have been vehemently opposing any minority tag or a religion status to the Lingayats.

The Lingayats run a large number of educational institutions and colleges in the state. In the event they do manage to get the minority tag, they will be able to run their institutions without any regulation or interference from the government.

The community, which forms 17 per cent of the state’s population, plays a dominant role during elections along with the Vokkaligas, who are equally large in numbers. Traditionally, the Lingayats have been supporting the BJP with the party’s leader, B S Yeddyurappa, considered a leading leader of the community.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the votes of the community were divided following the split engineered by Yeddyurappa in the BJP after he separated from the parent party to form the Karnataka Janata Paksh. The net result was that the BJP failed to retain power, managing to get a mere 40 seats.
While the KJP managed to split the votes which would otherwise have gone to the BJP Yeddyurappa’s new party managed to get only six of its candidates elected to the assembly.

It is this development which convinced the Congress under Siddaramiah that a vote split among the Lingayats was possible and could provide rich dividends this time as well. This explains the determination with which he encouraged Patil to push for a separate religion tag and minority status for the Lingayat, even if by splitting the community.