Lok Sabha polls: Union Minister Pralhad Joshi faces seer trouble in Dharwad
Dingaleshwara Mahaswami heads the Shirahatti Fakireshwara Mutt and has been a vocal supporter of B S Yediyurappa in the past.
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Dingaleshwara Mahaswami had even met BJP Parliamentary Board member B S Yediyurappa (left) with the petition to change Joshi (right) as the Lok Sabha candidate from Dharwad. (PTI Photo)Ever since the Dharwad constituency was formed after the 2008 delimitation exercise, Pralhad Joshi, Union minister for parliamentary affairs, coal and mines, has won the seat in all three Lok Sabha elections held since. In a seat considered a BJP bastion, the party is now finding opposition from a prominent Lingayat seer Fakir Dingaleshwara Mahaswami, who is unhappy about repeating Joshi as candidate.
The seer has held meetings with heads of other prominent mutts in the region to drum up support against the Union minister, and had set a March 31 deadline for the BJP leadership to change the “anti-Lingayat” Dharwad candidate. Dingaleshwara Mahaswami had even met BJP Parliamentary Board member B S Yediyurappa with the petition, which was turned down by the BJP veteran.
As the deadline to replace Joshi ended Sunday, the seer told reporters that he aimed to ensure the defeat of Joshi. “There is no question of stepping back,” he said. He will hold another meeting on Tuesday with seers and supporters to announce whether he would contest as an Independent.
The seer has maintained that Lingayats were unhappy about Joshi – a Brahmin. Among the grouses of the seer is the ‘lack of representation’ for Lingayat sects such as Panchamasali, Nolamba, and Banija in the BJP, and unhappiness over how former CM Jagadish Shettar – a Lingayat – was treated ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls when the BJP denied him a ticket. Shettar, who had quit the BJP over the issue, has since returned to the party fold and is a Lok Sabha candidate from Belagavi.
According to sources, the BJP is facing opposition from a section of seers ahead of the election for the first time in the last 20-30 years. This has come as a challenge for Joshi, representing a constituency where more than 60 per cent of the voters are Lingayats.
Soon after Dingaleshwara Mahaswami raised his voice against Joshi, the Union minister last week denied that he was anti-Lingayat and added that the party has been fielding Lingayat candidates in seven of the eight Assembly segments in his Lok Sabha constituency for the past several Assembly polls. “In our party, there is no discrimination and all communities are given an opportunity,” he added.
The seer, he said, has blessed him at all times. “If the seer is misinformed, we will address it. If I have committed a mistake, I am even ready to apologise. He is a religious leader and we respect him,” he said.
Dingaleshwara Mahaswami heads the Shirahatti Fakireshwara Mutt and has been a vocal supporter of Yediyurappa in the past. When he was asked to step down as CM in 2021, the seer had said that “the BJP will be washed away in Yediyurappa’s tears”. The Mutt headed by the seer is known for promoting communal harmony in the region.
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