Karnataka: 15 Lingayat MLAs eligible to become CM, says seer

DAVANAGERE: Jagadguru Sri Basava Jaya Mruthyunjaya Swami, who is leading a padayatra from Kudalasangama to Bengaluru seeking the 2A reservation tag for the Lingayat Panchamasali community, on Friday said there are 15 Lingayat MLAs from North Karnataka eligible to become chief minister. The BJP top leadership is free to pick any of them, he added.
“The BJP high command should consider one of these Lingayats while replacing chief minister BS Yediyurappa.Our only demand is that the MLA should be from North Karnataka,’’ he said at a rally in Harihar.
He asked Lingayat ministers recently inducted into Yediyurappa’s cabinet not to quit because they got portfolios not to their liking. “Please have patience. Yediyurappa will soon go and later you can stake your claim,’’ he said, accusing the CM of neglecting the community’s demand to provide 2A status tag for the Panchamasali sub-sect though its members form 80% of the total Lingayat population.
Senior BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal hit out at Yediyurappa for neglecting fellow Lingayat MLAs and the community after becoming chief minister. He adeded that Yediyurappa has slighted the Panchamasali community by giving them “low-profile portfolios”.
He also hit out at Yediyurappa’s son and BJP state vice-president BY Vijayendra. “I heard he (Vijayendra) has vowed to finish my political career. We’ll see whose career will end,’’ he added.