Rambhapuri Peetha seer Virasomeshwara Shivacharya Swami on Saturday called upon voters to teach a lesson to politicians dividing Veerashaiva-Lingayat religion.
"We will move the court if our religion is divided. Seers of all Mutts will fight against efforts by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to divide our religion. The Congress party will have to pay a heavy price if it divides Veerashaivas from Lingayats when the Assembly elections are around the corner," he told reporters.
The seer added: "No chief minister has ever intervened in religious matters so far in the state. It is improper on part of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to poke his nose in the religious matter."
The seven-member expert committee constituted by the State government to examine the demand for a separate religion tag for the Lingayats had sought six months to submit its report. However, the chief minister and a few of his cabinet colleagues put pressure on the committee and got the report in a hurry, he charged.
Answering a question, he said: "Lingayats are a majority and the move to include them in the list of minorities is wrong. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is in dilemma over according the status of independent religion to the Lingayats."
"Seers of all Mutts will fight against efforts by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to divide our religion," he warned.
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