In the millennia long history of Santana Dharma, great reformers have risen from time to time to tackle challenges faced by the society. The latest one was when Siddaramaiah and the Congress tried its best to divide the Hindus by granting separate religion status to Lingayats in the state at the time of assembly elections. The mainstream media outlets were calling this move a masterstroke. However, the election results gave a totally different picture. It became clear that Lingayats, who are traditionally BJP supporters, were totally disillusioned with Congress’ divisive move. They voted en masse against the Congress as a result of which its 0 share saw a huge downfall.
However, it is not in the nature of Congress party to accept defeat with grace. The Grand old party hit back on Lingayats by giving them minimum representation in the state cabinet. Many senior leaders of the Congress-JD(S) alliance, belonging to the Lingayat community including Ramalinga Reddy, Dinesh Gundurao, Shamanur Shivashankarappa and Satish Jarkiholi, were not inducted in the Cabinet.
A big rebellion is underway in the Congress with the help of the Lingayat Mahasabha, because the Mahasabha is unhappy with the fact that Lingayats have been ignored in the distribution of ministries. Lingayats are the most powerful community in the state constituting almost 17 percent of state’s population. A majority of politicians and chief ministers in the state of Karnataka come from this community. The Lingayats are the most dominant community in North Karnataka and had virtually ruled the state since independence. Therefore, the sidelining of their leaders by the Congress-JD(S) alliance is not going to go down well with the community. The only other community comparable to the Lingayats are the Vokkaligas who got a sweet deal from the government, as Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and many other powerful ministers like DK Sivakumar come from this community. The fact that Vokkaligas got a disproportionate share of power in this government did not go well with Lingayat community too.
One of the senior journalists of the state, Mahadeva Prakash observed that this Cabinet under the Congress party has least number of Lingayat and Veerashaiva ministers after Devraj Urs’ Cabinet in 1976. The present Cabinet has five Lingayat ministers, three from Congress and two from JDS. This clearly shows ‘the big concern’ of the Congress party for the Veerashaiva devotees.
The Congress-JDS government under H. D. Kumaraswamy is heading towards instability. There is a high probability that the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka may collapse at any moment. According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, Umesh Katti, a former minister, and BJP MLA from Hukkeri, claimed that the BJP will form the government in a week, as 15 disgruntled MLAs (Assumed to be from Lingayat sect) of the Congress-JD(S) coalition are in touch with the saffron party. On further questioning, he refused to reveal the names of MLAs. He further added that these MLAs are upset over not being given ministerial posts in the state cabinet and are willing to join BJP.
Not to forget the fact that in the Karnataka assembly election, held earlier this year, BJP emerged as the single largest party with 104 out of 224 seats in the state assembly. The Congress won 80 seats and it allied with JD(S) which got 37 seats. The alliance of Congress and JD(S) crossed the magical number of 113 and thus were able to install a government in the state. Three remaining seats went in the favour of others including 1 for the BSP (which allied with the INC later), 1 for Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) and a single seat to an independent candidate. The equation of seats in the states assembly is going to more complex If 10 or 12 MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) alliance leave and join the BJP (as predicted). While BJP forming the government looks unlikely, the Congress-JDS government could certainly topple.
