Lingayat leader wants BSY to quit

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday attended by many noted Lingayat leaders, P S Somalinganagouda said the chief minister should stop dragging the names of religious shrines for political purposes. It is wrong to mix politics and religion, Somalinganagouda said. “Yeddyurappa remembers God, temples and religious teachers whenever his chair is shaky.”

He said Yeddyurappa was donating public money to mutts in order to get the support of mutt heads. The chief minister was indulging in emotional blackmail of Lingayat seers to get their support.

“The previous Lingayat chief ministers of Karnataka, such as S Nijalingappa, B D Jatti, Veerendra Patil, S R Bommai and J H Patel never used their caste for political purposes,” Somalinganagouda said.

“Political charges and counter-charges should be limited to public life and not be settled in religious shrines,” Somalinganagouda said.