With just two months left for the Karnataka assembly elections, the state government on Monday accepted suggestions of Nagamohan Das committee to recognise Lingayats as a separate religion. Making a huge statement ahead of the polls, the cabinet gave its nod to the recommendation of separate religion for Lingayat community. The state government has forwarded its recommendations to the Centre, who has to take the final decision.
The move is crucial to secure the Lingayat votes ahead of the state polls, which is scheduled to be held in May.
Earlier on Sunday, a group of Lingayat seers had met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and urged him to implement the report of an official committee that recommended conferring a spearate religious and minority status to their community.
The seers, led by Gadag-based Tontadarya Mutt's Siddalinga Swami, called on Siddaramaiah at his official residence in Bengaluru and wanted him to consider and implement the Nagmohan Das Committee's report that said "Lingayats in Karnataka may be considered as religious minority".
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"Our fight is not new, it has been a 900-year-old fight and it has taken a shape now. The Chief Minister should implement the report and accord separate status to Lingayat community," the Tontadarya math swamiji told reporters later.
Ahead of the state cabinet meeting, there had been reports of differences between ministers belonging to both Veerashaiva and Lingayat faiths.
The demand for a separate religion tag to Veerashaiva/Lingayat faiths has surfaced from the numerically strong and politically-influential community, amid resentment from within over projecting the two communities as the same.
While one section led by Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha has demanded separate religion status, asserting that Veerashaiva and Lingayats are the same, the other wants it only for Lingayats as it believes that Veerashaivas are one among the seven sects of Shaivas, which is part of Hinduism.