Bengaluru: In a significant move that is set to heat up the political scene ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, the Congress-led Siddharamaiah Government yesterday decided to give independent religious status to the Lingayat community, which forms 17% of the State’s population, and decided to ask the Centre to grant it minority status.
The two major factions of the community are Veerashaivas and those who want to be known only as Lingayats, the followers of 12th century saint Basavanna who wanted to break away from the established Hindu tradition, and opposed the caste system and Vedic rituals.
