Karnataka: Lingayat and BJP/RSS loyalist Shettar joins Congress, how will complicated caste combinations work in upcoming elections?

Vibha Sharma

Chandigarh, April 17

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar today followed fellow Lingayat leader Laxman Savadi into the Congress. Shettar was someone seen as a true-blue BJP/ RSS man—someone with “pure saffron political lineage”.

Several BJP leaders decried his move, while Congress leaders, including president Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president DK Shivakumar, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others, welcomed him in the party with open arms.

Despite denying him ticket from his traditional Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency, the BJP leadership did try to assuage him, say sources.

Shettar will now contest elections from the constituency on the Congress ticket.

Shettars and BJP

Shettar won from the constituency six times since 1994, always on the BJP ticket.

His uncle Sadashiv Shettar joined the erstwhile Jan Sangh—the fore-runner to the BJP—and was elected to the Karnataka Assembly in 1967 from the Hubballi constituency.

His father SS Shettar remained a councillor in the Hubballi-Dharwad city corporation on several occasions, becoming the first Jan Sangh mayor of any city in south India, according to reports.

Shettar belong to the Lingayat community—a dominant community in the Hubballi region, said to be stronghold of Shettars.

Observers say Karnataka politics is influenced by ‘Hindutva’ politics more than other states in south India—Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala.

In fact, Hubballi’s Eidgah Maidan holds a similar place in Karnataka as Ayodhya in north India.

In other words, if the Ram temple movement strengthened the saffron party in Hindi-belt, the Eidgah campaign of the 1990s led by right-wing helped it gain foothold and power in Karnataka, a state dominated by mutts.

Several religious leaders from the state also participated in the Ayodhya movement, say observers.

Lingayat strongman and former CM BS Yeddiyurappa, who is said to be curating the BJP’s election campaign in the state, said he would personally campaign against Shettar and ensure his defeat.

“The Lingayat community will always be with the BJP,” he said.

Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai said BJP’s Lingayat base continues to be solid and that no one can breach it.

Karnataka’s complicated caste combination

Karnataka’s complicated caste combination is the key to Assembly elections in the state, just like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in north India.

Scheduled Castes account for 19.5 % of the total population—the single-largest grouping in the state—followed by Muslims (16 %) and Lingayats and Vokkaligas, 14 % and 11 %, respectively, according to reports quotingthe Census conducted by Siddaramaiah during his tenure.

OBCs constitute around 20 % of the population.

Siddaramaiah belongs to the Kuruba community amongsts OBCs.

The Congress is eyeing ‘Ahinda’—the Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits—combination. However, even minorities, OBCs, SCs and STs constitute a major bulk, around 80 % population, the Karnataka politics is largely controlled by Lingayats and Vokkaligas

Congress’ DK Shivakumar is a Vokkaliga.