The controversy over the proposal to grant minority religion tag to the Lingayat community continues to hurt the Congress even after its defeat in this May’s assembly elections. This time it has been singed by the public apology tendered by none other than senior Congressman ,D K Shivakumar, over the issue, much to the discomfiture of the party leaders. Or, so it appears. The Congress had lost power in the 2018 state elections bagging only 78 seats. It is another matter that it moved quickly to forge an alliance with the JDS to form a coalition government, and pulled the rug from under the BJP which had mustered 104 seats in a 224-member assembly.

This arrangement is something many of the party leaders have not been able to stomach even today, evidenced by the repeated friction within the Congress. Importantly, Shivakumar has raked up the Lingayat row ahead of the crucial 3 November bypolls to three Lok Sabha and two assembly seats. The by-elections are being held in the Parliamentary constituencies of Ballari, Mandya and Shimoga while the assembly polls will be conducted in Ramanagara and Jamkhandi. Shivakumar’s apology over a sensitive issue has prompted his detractors to accuse him of breaching party discipline.

Others who know him well though point out that he is too shrewd a politician to make such mistakes, instead attributing the whole drama to a well thought out strategy. They may not be off the mark. According to them, he is playing for bigger stakes, including the chief ministership. Being a Vokkaliga, another dominant community along with the Lingayats, the wily politician is seeking to woo voters of the two communities now in preparation for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, barely a few months away. He is confident of helping the Congress take a big lead in the state through his own influence. For the record, the Lingayats are BJP’s main vote bank today.

Further, along with many other partymen, Shivakumar believes that the ruling JDS-Congress combine cannot last for long, notwithstanding the public display of bonhomie. Not surprising then to see him preparing grounds to fulfil his ambition which he wears on his sleeve. The argument is not misplaced considering how upset he was at being sidelined during the cabinet formation in the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government. A section of the party leaders did confide then that he was extremely hopeful of bagging the chief minister’s chair in the combine before being pipped to the post by Kumaraswamy of the JDS.

His ambition was fuelled by the fact that the then chief minister Siddaramaiah had lost in the Chamundeshwari assembly constituency while just about managing to win Badami, the second seat which he had chosen as a safety measure. Several leaders that this paper spoke to echo the sentiment while pointing out that the recent ED raids at his premises have also galvanised Shivakumar into initiating steps to boost his support and influence in Karnataka. He fears that when it comes to the crunch he may again be sidelined and, therefore, needs to reiterate his influence as a state leader.

Accordingly, he needs the Ballari win as a further prop in the event he faces greater trouble with the tax authorities. All said and done, it is Shivakumar who has been entrusted by the Congress with the task of wresting Ballari from the BJP which, along with Shimoga and Jamkhandi constituencies, has a good population of the Lingayats. Besides, for the JDS-Cong combine, this bypoll is crucial if it has to carry the arrangement into the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. The Congress leader, predictably, rubbishes all these arguments, maintaining that he was merely being true to his conscience, adding that the apology was not an election gimmick. For good measure, he emphasised, “I strongly feel that getting involved in any caste or religious issue is not the work of the government.”

Another school of thought is that the whole game has been planned well by the Congress party itself as a veteran like Shivakumar would not do anything without clearance from the high command. The party is desperate to win the bypolls, especially the Lok Sabha constituency of Ballari, a stronghold of the BJP, where it has put up a candidate in V Ugrappa. In Mandya and Shimoga it is supporting JDS candidates, as it is doing in the Ramanagara assembly constituency. Jamkhandi is the sole assembly bypoll that it is hoping to bag, and where the JDS is not putting up a candidate.

Nevertheless, for the JDS-Cong combine, these bypolls are crucial if it has to carry the arrangement into the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 as the avowed objective of the two parties is to defeat “communal forces like the BJP” at any cost. All the drama, therefore, is to woo the electorate now in what is considered as a semi final to the all important Lok Sabha election.

And if Shivakumar’s apology can swing the Lingayat votes in particular, it would be a major gain on which the party can consolidate later. It would , therefore, be naive to ignore the manner in which Shivakumar tendered his apology. His apology came at a Dasara event in Gadag, organised by Rambhapuri seer Veerasomeshwara Shivacharya Swami, a known critic of the proposal on the Lingayats.

What hastens this reasoning is that in the normal course, a public apology over the politically sensitive Lingayat issue now would have caused a major commotion in the Congress with virtually all leaders asking for Shivakumar’s head. Nothing of the sort has happened and there was only a tame response from state unit president Dinesh Gundu Rao to the effect that “it is his personal view and not of the party.”

It was amusing to hear him claim that the Congress did not have a stand on the issue and the matter was between the then state government and the community. Can the policies of a party and its government be different? Anyway, the point is that no sharp rebukes have come forth for Shivakumar so far. Nor have there been calls for his expulsion, suspension or even disciplinary action against him. Even former CM Siddaramaiah’s reaction appeared far too guarded and muted. His only comment was that it was the unanimous decision of the cabinet and “I cannot analyse why Shivakumar has said this now.”

The only Congress leaders to react sharply were MB Patil and Vijay Kulkarni as the two had spearheaded the separate tag for Lingayat movement. Both have decried Shivakumar’s comments and the public apology. Veteran Congressman and president of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who had all along opposed the separate religion tag for Lingayats, hailed Shivakumar adding that he had only spoken the truth.

The writer is The Statesman’s Bengaluru-based Special Representative.