The Seer Amit Shah Met 2 Days Ago Backs K’taka CM’s Lingayat Move

The seer, who Shah had visited just two days ago, wrote to the Centre supporting Siddaramaiah’s move.

File photo of BJP President Amit Shah. 

(Photo: Reuters)

In what’s bound to be a shock to Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, the seer of the Murugha Mutt in Karnataka, who Shah met on 26 March, has come out in support of the Siddaramaiah government’s decision to grant religious minority status to members of the Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community.

Shah, who was in Karnataka to campaign for the BJP in the run-up to the Karnataka state elections, had visited the Murugha Mutt among other places, on 26 March.

Shah had sought the blessings of 110-year-old Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of the Murugha Mutt, for the party's success in the Karnataka Assembly elections, which are to be held on 12 May.

"I felt like seeing God when I met the revered seer. I sought his blessings for our party's success in the state Assembly election," Amit Shah had said after meeting the seer.

The letter from the seer, addressed to Shah himself, came just a day after the two met, stating that the “government of Karnataka has rightly recommended” the move to accord religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats.

The BJP has called the move by CM Siddaramaiah an attempt to polarise the state.

The BJP is fielding BS Yeddyurappa, who is a Lingayat himself, as their CM candidate, against the Congress’s Siddaramaiah.

The letter backing the CM’s move came just a day after a faux pas by the BJP president, who, while delivering a speech on 27 March, said the “Yeddyurappa government would get the award for the most corrupt government”, before clarifying that what he really meant to say was, “the Siddaramaiah government”.

(With inputs from ABP News)