Lingayat issue not to be included in Congress poll manifesto says M Veerappa Moily

Separate religion tag to Lingayats will not be a part of the Congress party’s election manifesto, according to the chairman of Election Manifesto Committee M Veerappa Moily.

KALABURAGI: Separate religion tag to Lingayats will not be a part of the Congress party’s election manifesto, according to the chairman of Election Manifesto Committee M Veerappa Moily.

Speaking to media persons here on Sunday, Moily said though the proposed Congress Manifesto-2018 of Karnataka covers various aspects including socio-economic and political issues, it would not give assurances to any particular community on any subject as Congress is a true secular party.

Congress leader M Veerappa
Moily speaking at a party meet
in Kalaburagi

Moily, who has come here along with Congress Manifesto Committee members including working president of KPCC S R Patil, convener of Manifesto Committee Venkat Rao Ghorpade and others, held a meeting with district unit presidents of Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Bellari districts, in-charge ministers and MLAs and MPs of the party at the district Congress office office.

Moliy said the Congress Manifesto Committee, for the sake of its convenience, has divided the state into six divisions — Mangaluru, Mysuru, Bengaluru, Hubblli, Kalaburagi and Chitradurga. The committee would visit all these cities and convene a meeting with DCC presidents, District Ministers and public representatives of the nearby districts in these places.

After interaction with party functionaries, the committee would interact with media persons followed by a meet with stake holders like academicians, industrialists, businessmen and advocates. After holding such an exercise in all the six places, it would study the ‘Vison-2025’ prepared by the government and would interact with the 15 sub-committees constituted by Election Manifesto Committee of Congress.

Later, the committee would hold discussions with the senior Congress leaders including KPCC president, ministers and Chief Minister before preparing the final draft of the manifesto. Every thing will be completed by January 25.

Moily said manifesto is like Bhagavad Gita, Quran and Bible for Congress. “It’s the commitment of the party to implement the manifesto. In the Elections held in 2013, Congress party gave 170 assurances in the manifesto and of them the government implemented all the assurances except two. Those two assurances would also be implemented in the next 3 months,” he said.

Of the 6.15 crore population of Karnataka, programmes of the government headed by the Congress party have reached over five crore people and 80% of the population has benefitted by one or the other schemes, the committee chairman claimed.

Congress plays safe
The Congress has played safe with Lingayat panel seeking six months time for submission of the report on separate religion status.  Speaking to reporters on Sunday, KPCC working president S R Patil and former chief minister M Veerappa Moily said Congress has nothing to do with the committee constituted by State Minority Commission. Congress has not supported any particular group, they claimed. When it was pointed out that some of the ministers in the Siddaramaiah government were seriously campaigning for separate religion status for Lingayat, Patil said one of the ministers Eshwar Khandre is in favour of separate religion tag for Veerashiva-Lingayat communities. “Neither Congress high command nor the KPCC has directed anybody for creating a public opinion over Lingayat row. In their individual capacity, somebody has raised voice for Lingayat and some for Veerashivas,” Patil and Moily maintained.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com