MYSURU: When some Veerashaiva-Linagayat leaders have locked horns over demand for a separate religion status, the leaders of both groups in Mysuru region have come together to bargain for as many seats as possible from all political parties in the ensuing assembly elections. Currently, both groups have just two MLAs out of 49 seats in Mysuru division.
Though the community had better representations in the past, the numbers dwindled over the years with many political parties fielding non-Veerashaiva candidates. The Vokkaliga candidates are managing to win in many constituencies which have a large chunk of Veerashaiva voters.
Veerashaiva leaders are unhappy with the treatment meted out to them by all political parties, have come together to exhibit their unity to prevail on the party high commands to get good share of seats. They wanted to pool all the ticket aspirants under one roof for a show of strength in Mysuru division that is politically dominated by Vokkaligas.
Despite being aware of JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda’s betrayal in the past of Veerandra Patil, J H Patel and S R Bommai, Veerashaiva leaders want to burry the hatchet and knock at the doors of the JD(S) seeking tickets to the members of their communities.
Veerashaiva-Lingayat Vedike president and former MLA H C Basavaraju said they have planned a rally in the city demanding their share in political representation.
He said numbers of Veerashaiva legislators is too less when compared to previous years. “We wanted to meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former chief ministers B S Yeddyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy to claim more tickets for Veerashaiva - Lingayat candidates,” he said.
Observing that the Vokkaligas domination has continued in old Mysuru as there is no unity among Veerashaiva leaders, former MLA Gurudev said they want to take to streets along with aspirants in all the constituencies.
The members of the vedike felt that 13 Veerashaiva and Lingayat candidates should win in 49 constituency in Mysuru.