Vijayapura: The issue of alleged insult to Lingayat communities has refused to die down as the Congress and the BJP continued to play blame game by accusing each other of ill-treating the Lingayats.
KPCC Spokesperson S. M. Patil Ganihar has made serious allegations against the BJP that the party has been deliberately weakening Lingayat leaders in order to make MP Pralhad Joshi as the next CM of Karnataka if the party comes to power again.
Addressing mediapersons, he said that only with the hidden agenda of making Joshi as new CM, the party has been sidelining the Lingayat leaders such as B. S. Yediyurappa, Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi. It may be noted that Joshi belongs to the Brahmin community.
He said that the BJP is making baseless allegations against the Congress that it is insulting the community and their leaders.
“In reality, the Congress has given great respect to Lingayats. It was the Congress which made Lingayat leaders as CMs. They include, K. C. Reddy, Nijalingappa, S. R. Kanthi, B. D. Jatti and J. H. Patel. Congress gave the highest number of Lingayat MLAs,” he asserted.
Describing Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah as the real follower and believer in the ideology of Lord Basaveshwara, he said that the BJP is making absurd allegations against the Congress on Lingayat issue as the party has no real issue of development.
In his address, Ravi Biradar, the KPCC Secretary of Doctors’ Cell said that it was Siddaramaiah who took oath as CM on Basava Jayanti day. He ordered the installation of portraits of Basaveshwara in every government office of the State and also named Karnataka State Women’s University after Akkamahadevi.
“The list is long which clearly depicts how Siddaramaiah has given respect to Lingayat leaders and the community. But today, the BJP which is now facing fear of losing Lingayat votes, is doing damage control by blaming the Congress,” he said.
