Vokkaliga and Lingayat Seers Demand Congress Leadership Change in Karnataka

In Karnataka, two seers who speak for the powerful Vokkaliga and Lingayat groups have asked that the next chief minister be chosen from among Congress officials belonging to their respective sects.

The leader of the Vishwa Vokkaligara Mahasamsthana Mutt, Kumara Chandrashekaranatha Swami, first advocated for D.K. Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister, to be the next chief minister.

Because he made his appeal at a public meeting alongside chief minister Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar, and other Vokkaliga seers during an event honoring Bengaluru founder Kempe Gowda's 515th birthday, it was heard in the appropriate places.

Chandrashekaranatha Swami argued that Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, should take over as chief minister after Siddaramaiah, who had held the position for more than a year during his second term, should step down.

Not to be outdone, well-known Lingayat seer Srisaila Jagadguru Channa Siddharama Panditharadhya Swamy pushed the Congress on Friday to take community leaders into consideration for the chief minister position.

The state ministers M.B. Patil, Eshwar Khandre, and S.S. Mallikarjun were suggested by the Lingayat pontiff for the position, in contrast to the Vokkaliga seer who only supported Shivakumar. He reminded the Congress that the party had received support from Lingayat voters in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

A portion of the Congress wants three deputy chief ministers to represent the major communities, which coincides with the arrival of the two seers and their desperate plea for leadership.

Ministers of housing and minority affairs Zameer Ahmed Khan, public works Satish Jarkiholi, and cooperation K.N. Rajanna are among those who have publicly supported the call for three deputies, purportedly in an effort to diminish Shivakumar's significance.

Shivakumar, the chief troubleshooter for a long time, suffered a severe blow when his brother D.K. Suresh lost in their native Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency. The defeat to the son-in-law of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and cardiologist C.N. Manjunath of the BJP occurred at a time when many had anticipated Shivakumar to soften his demands for the top position.

Shivakumar had resisted the announcement of his appointment as chief minister after leading the party to a resounding win in the 2023 state elections. Days of talks and discussions with the top leadership were required to get him to cede power to Siddaramaiah as part of the agreement.

In an attempt to throw the ruling party into disarray, Congress officials have jumped to the party's defense and accused the BJP of encouraging the seers to bring up the subject of leadership.

The BJP was accused by Agriculture Minister N. Chaluvaraswamy of encouraging the seers in order to hide the party's inability to hold onto 27 (out of 28) Karnataka seats from the previous Lok Sabha. While an Independent that it supported won her seat, the BJP had won 25 seats on its own. The Janata Dal Secular had joined the NDA last year and had managed to secure one seat.

The minister claimed, "The BJP is desperate because it could only win 17 seats this time."

B.Y. Vijayendra, the head of the state BJP, had earlier charged Siddaramaiah of enlisting the help of his supporters to weaken Shivakumar's position by appointing three deputies.

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