Did Lingayat religion bet backfire on Congress?

DHNS

May 15, 2018

Bengaluru, MAY 15: The consolidation of the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities seem to have worked against the Congress, which looks to be staring at a defeat going by the vote count trends.

There was widespread fear within the Congress in the run-up to the polls that the government’s decision to accord "religious minority" status on the Lingayat community would backfire.

Trends show that the BJP is gaining in the Lingayat-dominated Hyderabad-Karnataka and Mumbai-Karnataka regions.

Similarly, the theory that the dominant Vokkaliga community has ganged up against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seems ratified. Siddaramaiah is heavily trailing in the Chamundeshwari constituency, where incumbent JD(S) legislator G T Deve Gowda is placed with a comfortable lead. Trends show that the Congress is losing out to the JD(S) in the Vokkaliga belt of the Old Mysuru region.

The ruling Congress was plagued with an inefficient campaign, in that the party ended up depending on its president Rahul Gandhi. Before Rahul started his pre-poll campaign in February, Siddaramaiah and state party president G Parameshwara had taken out separate campaigns, which pointed out that there was no unity among leaders.

It is also said that an element of overconfidence had crept in. “If we yield to overconfidence, we will be in trouble,” Parameshwara had publicly said in March.

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Manipur CM is mastermind behind violence; Centre lied in Supreme Court: Kuki MLAs

News Network

November 11,2024

The Manipur Kuki MLAs have released a statement calling out Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's 'lies' in the Supreme Court. In a joint statement, the MLAs, including those from the Bharatiya Janata Party, said they had not had any meeting with the Chief Minister since May 3, 2023, nor did they intend to meet him in the future as “he was the mastermind behind the violence”.

As per the MLAs, the SG lied about state CM N Biren Singh speaking to Kuki MLAs to control the situation there, in order to halt a Supreme Court probe into the leaked tapes which allege that Singh has been complicit in the violence that broke out between Kukis and Meitis there.

"We...clarify that we have never had any meeting with Chief Minister, Shri N. Biren Singh since May 3, 2023, nor have any intention to meet him in future as he is the mastermind behind the violence and ethnic cleansing of our people from the Imphal valley, which is continuing till today, the latest being the brutal killing and burning of Mrs Zosangkim Hmar on November 7, 2024," the letter read, while condemning the recent 'barbaric' killing of the woman there, and noting the SG's assertion is 'tantamount' to misleading the top court.

“We, the undersigned ten MLAs, have come to know that during the Supreme Court hearing held on November 8, 2024, the Solicitor General of India submitted that ‘CM is meeting all Kuki MLAs and trying to bring the situation down to get peace’. In this connection, we hereby categorically state that this submission is a blatant lie and tantamount to misleading the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” the statement said.

The Supreme Court, while hearing a petition by a Kuki organisation, asked that it submit audio tapes to substantiate its claim that the Chief Minister was instrumental in inciting and organising violence in the northeastern State.

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta orally informed the court that the Chief Minister was meeting all the Kuki-Zo MLAs and that peace in the State had come at a huge cost.

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