Seers backing BSY to 'thank' him: Congress

BANGALORE: State Congress leaders of Lingayat community on Tuesday said the heads of Lingayat mutts were openly lobbying for Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to pay back the benefits he had exte
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BANGALORE: State Congress leaders of Lingayat community on Tuesday said the heads of Lingayat mutts were openly lobbying for Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to pay back the benefits he had extended to them.

Senior Congress leader M P Prakash told reporters it was wrong to say that the entire Lingayat community and its religious heads were putting their weight behind Yeddyurappa. "Only those who have got benefits from Yeddyurappa are backing him," he said.

Veeranna Mattikatti, Rani Satish, Amaregouda Bayyapur and Basavaraj Rayareddy were the other Lingayat leaders of the Congress present at the press conference.

Prakash accused Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat, of setting a bad tradition in the democracy by playing community card to save his chair. He said the chief minister was trying to defend his misdeeds by using his caste.

The Congress leaders dismissed the argument that the Lingayats would desert the Bharatiya Janata Party if Yeddyurappa was asked to quit. "The CM, who is immersed in acts of corruption and nepotism and gave a weak government to the people, has no right to continue in office and he should go," they said.

Expressing his displeasure over the affairs of his own party, Prakash said the Congress was in Opposition because it ignored the majority Lingayat community. When it was pointed out that Pejawar pontiff Vishvesha Theertha Swamiji is also favouring Yeddyurappa, Prakash said the Pejawar seer's association with Vishwa Hindu Parishad and RSS was a wellknown fact.

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