Seer cold to religion status, BJP happy

Bengaluru:  The state BJP, which has been worried over the electoral repercussions of its lack of support for the Lingayats' demand for a separate religious status, is now believed to be relieved after prominent seer of the Siddaganaga mutt, Shivakumara Swamiji, clarified recently that he was not backing the community on this.  

Going by party sources,  BJP leaders were instrumental in persuadiing the pontiff  to release a statement asserting that both Veershaivas and Lingayats were one the same and calling for the unity in the community. 

They claim that party state president, B.S.Yeddyurappa, has been silently working behind the scenes to negate the demand for separate religious status for the Lingayats by deputing his trusted loyalists to convince  prominent Lingayat mutts not to support it. He reportedly assigned prominent Lingayat leader, V.Somanna to  persuade the Veerashaivas not to demand a separate religious tag either and also advised other leaders to convince the office bearers of the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha to oppose it as well.

The statement by the seer of the Siddaganaga Mutt has come as a relief to the  BJP, which was in a dilemma over whether or not to support the demand for a  separate religious status for Lingayats. The party's central leadership had reportedly cautioned it to go with the public mood on the issue.

Unwilling to take chances, the BJP leaders went  to work to derail Minister M.B. Patil's agenda on the issue. The fact that Mr Yeddyurappa had remained unfazed when asked about party's stand on a separate religious status for Lingayats and the  Siddaganaga pontiff's support for it on Monday is a pointer, according to sources.  They recall that he merely advised reporters to wait for another 24 hours to get their answer. 

And before this time was up, the prominent seer of the community had issued a statement calling for unity between the Veerashaivas and Lingayats, they note.