Lingayat leaders in Cong up ante, demand 50 tickets and post of CM?

Some Lingayat/Veerashaiva community leaders suspect that their community may get a raw deal in the coming days with Kuruba (Siddaramaiah) and Vokkaliga(Shivakumar) leaders fighting for the CM gaddi

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Even as senior leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar spar for the CM’s post, Congres leaders belonging to the dominant dominant Veerashaiva/ Lingayat community have reportedly sent a message to the high command demanding a minimum of 50 tickets for community candidates in the upcoming polls as well as the post of CM.

Some Lingayat/Veerashaiva community leaders suspect that their community may get a raw deal in the coming days with Kuruba(Siddaramaiah) and Vokkaliga(Shivakumar) leaders fighting for the CM gaddi. No Congress leader from the Lingayat community has become CM after the unceremonious removal of Veerendra Patil from the post in the late 1980s by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on health grounds.

The community remains a strong force in several districts in the Kalyana Karnataka and Kittur Karnataka regions but lacks a strong leadership which can take up thier cause with the high command and stake claim for the CM’s post. Sources said Congress ticket aspirants in the community held a dinner meeting at a hotel in the city to discuss their political future.

The meeting was attended by veteran leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, Eshwar Khandre, M.B.Patil, Vinay Kulkarni, and others and reportedly went on for nearly two and a half hours while dwelling at length on the reported ups and downs suffered by the community in the recent past. According to sources, the community is insisting on 50 seats including the Chikpet and Rajajinagar constituencies in Bengaluru.

Community leaders are insisting that in any constituency which has more than one lakh Lingayat/Veerashaiva voters, the ticket must be given to the community candidate and not to others. This time, 210 ticket aspirants of the community have submitted applications seeking tickets of which the names of 74 candidates have been reportedly shortlisted.

Winnability must be the main criterion and social justice must be ensured at the time of appointing chairmen to various boards and corporations and ministers in case the Congress comes to power, the leaders insist.

Lingayats have not been given tickets in any constituency in Ballari district or in Gokak constituency where a microscopic community is given tthe icket in the name of social justice, they said adding that their demands must be considered with utmost seriousness.