Caste survey row: Lingayat numbers will drop to 60-70 lakh, says Congress MLA Shivashankarappa

Shivashankarappa, who heads the top Lingayat body in the state, is among the vocal opponents of the caste survey in Karnataka. “They have shown (Veerashaiva Lingayats) to be around 60-70 lakh,” the MLA said. On how he was privy to the information when the report was yet to be accepted by the government, he said, “We get information”. The community, he said, was not against a caste survey. “But, the survey should be done afresh,” he added.

Lingayats are considered to number around 15-17 per cent of Karnataka’s projected population of 6.5-7 crore (6.11 crore as of the 2011 Census). Apart from this community, Vokkaligas, considered the second largest, have also opposed the Survey report – popularly referred to as the caste census in Karnataka.

Recently, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar was among the signatories of a petition from leaders of Vokkaliga community to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to junk the report’s findings.

As pressure mounted from within party ranks on Siddaramaiah, who maintains that the government will accept the report, extended the tenure of the chairman and members of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes for two more months. The term of chairman Jayaprakash Hegde ended on November 25. The government had previously said the report would be accepted by the end of Hegde’s term in November.

Now, the Commission has till January 25 to submit the findings of the survey ordered in 2015 by Siddaramaiah during his first tenure as the chief minister. Though the survey was completed by the KSCBC in 2017, it was put into cold storage ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls as the party feared political repercussions. Other governments, too, appear to have feared the same, so the report remains under wraps.