The BJP’s experiments to tinker with the reservation matrix months before the Karnataka State Assembly elections, a series of its decisions that are believed to have riled the influential Lingayat community, and a perceived threat to minorities under the saffron party’s rule, appear to have backfired on the party as the poll outcome indicates.
The party, which was already on the backfoot over the demand for reservation by the Panchamsalis, the numerically stronger Veerashaiva-Lingayat subsect, and “forced” stepping down of Lingayat strongman B.S. Yediyurappa from the post of Chief Minister, seem to have further cornered the Linagayat narrative alongside the ignominious exits of former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and former Deputy Chief Minister Lakshman Savadi.
The powerful land-owning community of the north Karnataka region appears to have backed the Congress in this election, with 34 Veerashaiva-Lingayats getting elected on the Congress ticket as opposed to only 18 elected on the BJP ticket. In the 2018 Assembly election, 38 BJP legislators were Veerashaiva-Lingayats, following the row over the movement for a separate Lingayat religion that resulted in the Congress having only 16 Veerashaiva-Lingayat legislators.
