Bengaluru: Lingayats may want more than five Lok Sabha seats

Bengaluru: With the Lok Sabha polls fast approaching, the dominant Lingayat community in Karnataka is upping the ante and demanding its pound of flesh.

Lingayat leaders from the Congress have already taken the lead in this regard and are preparing to seek a substantial chunk of Lok Sabha seats in the state. At a dinner hosted by KPCC working president, Eshwar Khandre, himself a Lingayat, on Wednesday, the leaders felt that if the party was keen about winning more seats, it had to give the Lingayats their due.

"To do that, we need to convince the party to give no less than five seats to Lingayats. The seats which the Lingayats are eyeing include, Bidar, Bagalakote, Haveri and Davangere," a source in the Congress party said.

The party has held numerous meetings with office bearers, district unit heads and sitting and former legislators to elicit their  opinion on the selection of candidates. However, the final sitting of top leaders is yet to take place to finalise candidates. Sources however said the Congress may not give in to the pressure of any community and would prefer to go by the winnability factor as this election is more crucial than the previous ones and the victory of every MP counts.