The Veershaiva Mahasabha, a representative body of the Veershaiva and Lingayat community, has rejected the minority tag recommended for the Lingayat community by the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka.

BREAKING | #Veerashaiva Mahasabha ‘rejects’ the minority tag for #Lingayats. — Bangalore Mirror (@BangaloreMirror) March 23, 2018

The Mahasabha also accused the Karnataka government of taking the decision in view of the upcoming Assembly elections.

If you are really interested in the community say #Veerashaiva and #Lingayat is one and the same. Except this, the govt is saying everything else. Don’t create differences between person to person & within the community: All India #Veerashaiva Mahasabha at Bengaluru, Karnataka pic.twitter.com/gxa4qZjUzU — ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2018

Mahasabha President Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who is also a Congress MLA, had on Tuesday called the decision of the cabinet “height of injustice”. He had said, “We have called a meeting of Veerashaiva Mahasabha on March 23; prima facie itself this (decision of the cabinet) makes it clear that it is the height of injustice.” The meeting has been called to discuss the future course of action.

The Siddaramaiah government had earlier accepted the suggestions of a panel that had been constituted to look into the issue and recommended a minority tag for the Lingayat community. The move was seen as an appeasement tactic ahead of the upcoming polls to divide the votes of the community which has traditionally been a BJP vote base.