Hubballi, Nov 6: Former Chief Minister and BJP leader Jagadish Shettar had openly backed the demand for separate religion tag for Lingayats when his party was ruling Karnataka a few years ago. However, the same Shettar, who is now Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly, on Monday called incumbent Chief Minister Siddaramaiah the mastermind behind the struggle for Lingayat religion.
Speaking to media persons here, Shettar also charged that the movement seeking independent religion status for the Lingayat is politically-motivated and is becoming Congress-sponsored.
"This struggle began after the BJP announced B S Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate. The struggle is aimed at dividing Lingayat votes, and therefore, Congress leaders are in the forefront of this struggle and BJP is being targeted in its conventions. Caste politics and election politics are behind this," he said.
Mr Shettar said that he would have supported the struggle if it was done with honesty and proper consultations were done before launching the struggle.
“We have an information that there is no provision in the Constitution to declare a new religion. If benefits are needed, minority tag would have been sought. But, they are demanding independent religion status, just to divide the society, as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would not have entertained the demand for minority tag alone,” he charged.
They are in a hurry, and are asking the chief minister to send the proposal to the Union Government in January itself, before the model code of conduct for Assembly elections comes into force. This is a plan to blame Prime Minister Narendra Modi later. Why this demand was not highlighted in last four years, and why it is being brought to limelight when elections are near? Instead, the State Government itself could have accorded backward classes status to the community, as done in Andhra Pradesh, Mr Shettar noted.
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