BENGALURU: With the Congress expected to announce its list of candidates soon, the party’s Lingayat leaders — All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha president and MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa and former PCC president Allum Veerabhadrappa — called on AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi, urging him to consider giving more tickets to Lingayats.
A few weeks ago, Lingayat leaders had held a meeting in Bengaluru, to demand more tickets for the community, not only in North Karnataka but in the southern region too, and had apprised the leadership of this demand.
Lingayats make up over 16 per cent of the voters in Karnataka. They are jockeying for better representation in about 100 constituencies in South Karnataka, and are demanding at least 10 more seats in this region. They also demanded that one or two seats be given to Lingayats in Bengaluru city, which has 28 seats, besides giving tickets in all districts in the South -- Tiptur and Chikkanayakanahalli in Tumakuru, besides one or two seats in Kolar, Hassan, Chikkaballapur, Mandya, Ramanagara and Bangalore Rural. The community has said it should also be considered in Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar, Krishnaraja in Mysuru and Madikeri-Somwarpet in Kodagu.
With CLP leader Siddaramaiah, KPCC chief D K Shivakumar and the screening committee working on the final list, the Lingayat leadership urged Kharge to give proper representation. Kharge heard them out and told them he would first wait for the screening committee to prepare the list and then make any suggestions.
All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha secretary Renuka Prasanna said, “It is for the Congress to understand that if it needs to win, it needs Lingayat votes.” “We respect all sections of society and will give adequate representation to all. We have our yardsticks for choosing candidates, like winnability, and will apply them to all,” Shivakumar said.
Analysing this development, political analyst BS Murthy said, “The Congress is seeing a crack in the Lingayat vote for the first time in about 20 years, and hopes to corner a good number of votes. The party can sense the community is not solidly behind the BJP and is hoping to cash in on the Lingayat disenchantment.’’ The Congress, which is expected to give about 44-45 seats to Lingayats, may not be able to match the over 60 seats the BJP is likely to offer the community.