BENGALURU: Forty eight hours before the state goes to poll, the Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha and its youth wing Rashtriya Basava Sena has released an advertisement citing “Lingayat hitha kagi Kaydiruvara ge namma matha” (Those who protect the interests of Lingayats, we will vote for them), asking the community to reject BJP and vote for the Congress .

Even as the BJP national president Amit Shah spoke of the minority tag given to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats (believers of Basava Tattva) having “zero impact” on the party’s traditional vote bank, the Lingayat forum advertisements issued in seven or eight Kannada and English newspapers has caused a “flutter” within the BJP and outside.

The advertisement gives a detailed picture of the Lingayat struggle and points fingers at Shah, RSS and the BJP for being the real perpetrators of dividing the Lingayats and funding the sub-sect of Veerashaiva community to create the rift within the community.

According to members of the Lingayat forum, the prime reason for the JLM to issue the advertisement was the barrage of attacks against the community and the Congress for dividing the Hindu religion.

“The forum was livid when the PM compared the emotions of four crore Lingayats to “lollipop”. However, we decided to wait and consider it as an error. But the PM went on a tirade against the minority tag given to the Lingayats even in Bidar, his last public rally. It was the final straw and we decided to release the advertisement on Wednesday night,” said an office bearer of the JLM.

However, the timing of the advertisements has led to speculations that it has the fingerprints of two senior Congress ministers who spearheaded the Lingayat movement.

It is said the Congress is expecting to “exploit” the advertisement to its advantage by sway at least one to two per cent of the lingayat votes in the north Karnataka districts of Bagalkot, Vijayapura and Dharwad.

Incidentally, the three districts have chief minister Siddaramaiah (Badami), water resources minister M B Patil (Bableshwar) and mines minister Vinay Kulkarni (Dharwad) vying to come back to power.

Convenor for the JLM S M Jamdar confirmed the newspaper advertisements were placed by the forum and its youth wing.

It is said another set of 15 questions and points has already begun circulating in social media, especially in WhatsApp groups asking the community to move away from the BJP.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Basava Peetha pontiff Mata Mahadevi has issued a video on social media asking the Lingayats to openly vote for the Congress party.

