Yatnal, Kashappanavar exploiting Panchamasali agitation: K’taka ministers

The statements come even as the influential seers of the Panchamasali, one of the largest subsects under the Lingayats, have intensified their agitation and asked that the reservation change be announced soon

Senior ministers of the Karnataka government on Monday hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Basanagouda Ramanagouda Patil (Yatnal) and former legislator Vijayanand Kashappanavar for exploiting the ongoing Panchamasalis’ (a sub-sect of the Lingayat community) agitation for political gain.

BJP MLA Basanagouda Ramanagouda Patil (Yatnal), a critic of Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa, speaks during a Panchamasali convention to demand inclusion in the 2A reservation category in Bengaluru, Sunday. (PTI)

“The campaign is being used for selfish reasons by some people and this is something that we do not agree with,” CC Patil, a senior minister of the BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government, said on Monday.

“Some people have the seer (Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami) under their grip and are misusing the forum,” he added.

They also said that Kashappanavar has declared himself the national president of the sub-sect without consulting anyone. “He should have named himself the international president of the Panchamasali,” Patil said, mocking the title.

Patil stormed off the stage on Sunday after Yatnal said that the ministers from the community should resign if the chief minister does not cede to their demands.

The statements come even as the influential seers of the Panchamasali, one of the largest sub-sects under the Lingayats, have intensified their agitation and asked that the reservation change be announced before March 4 or before the start of the budget session.

Yatnal, a staunch critic of the chief minister, has repeatedly targeted Yediyurappa and his family after being left out of the state cabinet.

He has levelled charges of corruption, favouritism and even inability on the part of Yediyurappa and his family members that has added to the challenges of the dissent-hit government and its remaining two-year tenure.

Yediyurappa has remained silent on the issue ever since he issued an order, directing the state’s backward classes commission to conduct a review of the Panchamasalis’ demands.

Several dominant and politically influential communities in the state, including Vokkaligas, Valmiki and Kurubas among others, have also sought a change in reservation category or increase in allocations.

Minister Murugesh Nirani said that there is a procedure to initiate such a request and the government required some time to act on the same.

He also said that there are efforts to include all sub-sects within the Lingayat community into the 2A category and not just the Panchamasalis.

Nirani said that Lingayats make up around 800,000 of the total 65 million population of the state and there are several smaller sects who have not been represented at all.

There are at least 36 pending applications before the state’s backward classes commission, and change of reservation category, according to people directly involved in the process, takes time.

“The good intent with which the campaign started did not end on the same note,” Patil said.

Meanwhile the seers and their followers have been camping in Bengaluru and have demanded that the announcement be made at the earliest or that they will initiate a fast.

“The main reason for the delay is that the chief minister did not take us seriously from the beginning,” Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami told reporters in Bengaluru.

He said that the government should provide an exact timeframe of the process and the community leaders would take a call based on these assurances.