Separate religion tag for Lingayats: BJP says Siddaramaiah playing with fire

The BJP today slammed the Karnataka government for its decision to recommend separate religion status for Lingayats, accusing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of "playing with fire for vote back politics".

Party general secretary in-charge of Karnataka P Muralidhar Rao accused the state's ruling Congress of practising a "divide and rule" policy.

"Congress carrying 'Divide and Rule' legacy of Britishers in India. Siddaramaiah ji is playing with fire for vote bank politics. Why has Congress done this before elections? Why haven't they done it 4 years back?" he said in a tweet.

In a significant move, the Congress government in poll-bound Karnataka today decided to recommend to the Centre granting religious minority tag to the numerically strong andpolitically influential Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat communities.

BJP chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa hails from the community and the government's decision is being seen by the saffron party as an attempt by the Congress to divide Lingayat voters, who strongly backed him have in the past polls.