Religious minority status to Lingayats granted in view of K'taka polls: Veerashaiva Mahasabha

Shamanuru Shivashankarappa, president of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, claimed that the Karnataka Government's move to grant a separate religion status to the Lingayat community was clearly made keeping forthcoming assembly elections in mind.

"If you are really interested in the community say Veerashaiva and Lingayat are one and the same. Except this, the government is saying everything else. Don't create differences between person to person & within the community," said Shivashankarappa.

The Karnataka Government on Friday declared minority status to the Lingayats community, days after the it accepted the suggestions of Nagamohan Das committee to grant a separate religion status to the Lingayats community.

Earlier, after the Karnataka government approved a separate religion status for the Lingayats, a clash broke out between Lingayat followers and Veerashaiva followers in Kalaburagi when the Lingayat followers were celebrating the government's decision, while the Veerashaiva followers were protesting against the same.

The decision has garnered a lot of criticism and is widely being termed as a 'politically motivated' move.