JOIN USThe convention will not be a political affair, he added.
Yatnal said it was wrongly being projected that the entire Lingayat community was supporting Yeddurappa, while it was only a few Lingayat religious leaders who backed him.
“Lingayats aren't enslaved to an individual or a party. The community is ashamed of the resolution passed in Suttur, where complete support has been pledged by the religious leaders to Yeddyurappa,” he said. There have been several political leaders including J H Patel, S R Bommai, Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil who have headed the State, but none of them has ever identified himself as Lingayat leaders, said Yatnal. Religious leaders who were part of the Suttur convention, along with some BJP legislators too, would participate in the convention to be hosted by the JD (S).
Targeting N-K
The JD(S) constituted a 25-member core committee to oversee election-related activities for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region on Tuesday.
The decision was taken with the objective of consolidating the party base across the State - especially the North Karnataka districts. The party, which is aiming at a major overhaul, is preparing itself to fight the next Assembly elections, two years hence.
The party will also constitute another core committee for the Mumbai-Karnataka region, at a meeting on May 25.
At a day-long meeting at the party office in Bangalore chaired by JD (S) state president H D Kumaraswamy, it was decided to reorganise the party from the booth level to the district level. While former MLA Suryanarayana Reddy has been made Chairman of the Hyderabad-Karnataka core committee, legislators Venkatarao Nadagouda has been made convener of Bellary, Raichur and Koppal districts and Subhash Guttedar in charge of Gulbarga, Yadgir and Bidar.
The committee, which is required to meet once a month has also been instructed to prepare a list of prospective candidates for at least 100 constituencies for the next Assembly elections. The list will be released in either June or July.