In the election year, the BJP that has been besieged with demands from various caste groups for change of categories or status in reservation has another problem on the platter. On Sunday, the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha reiterated its earlier demand and urged the State government to recommend inclusion of all Veerashaiva-Lingayat sub-sects in the Central OBC list.
“The State government should immediately send the memorandum to add all the Veerashaiava-Lingayat sub-sects to the Centre for inclusion in the Central OBC list. The memorandum has been given on multiple occasions earlier,” Mahasabha’s secretary general Eshwar Khandre told presspersons here after the general body meeting. He said: “If it is not done, the general body of the mahasabha has passed a resolution to launch agitation at the hobli level and taluk level demanding the same to bring pressure on the government.”
Currently, 14 of the 89 Veerashaiva-Lingayat sub-sects are in the Central OBC list for education and employment avenues, and the demand for inclusion of all the sub-sects that are spread across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Goa has been pending for some time.
