'Cong's Lingayat move aimed at preventing Yeddyurappa from becoming CM'

March 26, 2018 19:59

BJP President Amit Shah today maintained that the Siddaramaiah government's move to accord separate religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats was aimed at preventing B S Yeddyurappa from becoming chief minister.

"This Siddaramaiah government has brought this proposal, not because it has love for Lingayats, but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming chief minister," he said, as he began his two-day tour of election-bound Karnataka.

"I want to tell Karnataka people that if BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa chief minister," he added.

Yeddyurappa is considered a Lingayat strongman.

The state cabinet had recently decided to recommend to the Centre to accord religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, in a move seen as an attempt to chip away at the BJP's strong Lingayat voter base.

Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people.

He, however, believed that the people of the state would not be enticed by Siddaramaiah's "divide-and-rule politics."

-- PTI

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