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By Nagarjun Dwarakanath: Congress MLA M B Patil slammed the BJP for not giving members of the Lingayat community their due credit and treating the community only as a vote bank, hours after Jagadish Shettar resigned from the saffron party for being denied a ticket for the upcoming Karnataka elections.
Referring to Jagadish Shetter quitting from the BJP, M B Patil said that the BJP has given a clear message to the Lingayats that they are not the ‘priests of the sanctum sanctorum’ but that they are limited to ‘sitting outside the sanctum sanctorum…’
M B Patil said that the BJP did not vest any decision-making rights to the Lingayats and limited them to only a vote bank.
Giving a clarion call to the Lingayats to ‘return home to the Congress in 2023’, M B Patil said, “Karnataka will witness a new massive political churn because of how Lingayats were mistreated by the BJP…”
In another tweet, M B Patil explained how Suresh Kumar, a Brahmin facing anti-incumbency, aged 67, was given a ticket by the BJP but how the party refused a ticket to JJagadish Shetter.
“Brahmin Suresh kumar gets ticket while Lingayat Jagadish Shettar is denied a ticket,” said M B Patil.
M B Patil’s statement assumes significance as Jagadish Shettar, a member of the Lingayat community, quit the BJP days after former deputy Chief Minister and MLC Laxman Savadi also resigned, after the first list of 189 candidates who will fight the upcoming Karnataka polls, did not feature his name. Laxman Sadavi is also a Lingayat.
Even B S Yediyurappa, former CM and a Lingayat, resigned as CM on July 26, 2021 as the BJP has an unritten rule of keeping out those above 75 years from elected offices and paving the way for fresh leadership.
Meanwhile, at a press conference, B S Yediyurappa dismissed the claims made by MB Patil. “Lingayats are not sidelined. The Congress is spreading this as an agenda. I don’t want Lingayats to listen to Congress. No Lingayat is sidelined,” said the former CM.
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