JDS looks to expand base, eyes Veerashaiva-Lingayat votes

As Karnataka heads to the election in the next few days, Janata Dal (Secular) or JD (S), which traditionally relied on the Vokkaliga vote bank in the state, is now trying to expand its voter base.

In a bid to woo Veerashaiva-Lingayats community, former Karnataka Chief Minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) leader H D Kumaraswamy had recently offered an apology to Veerashaiva voters.

While addressing the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community in Mysuru, Kumaraswamy appealed to 'forget old incidents' and even stopped short of apologising to the community for not handing over the chief minister post to BS Yediyurappa in 2007.

It may be recalled that when Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa had formed an alliance in 2006, it had led to the fall of the Dharam Singh-led coalition government.

Under the power-sharing agreement between the two parties, Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) became the Chief Minister of the state for the first 20 months of the government's term, after which Yediyurappa of the BJP had to take over as Chief Minister for the remaining 20 months. But when the time came, the JD(S) leader refused to do it, which led to the collapse of the government in 2008. Since then, it is believed that the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community has harboured a grouse against the JD(S) and Kumaraswamy.

In 2018, although JD(S) which is largely seen as a party of Vokkaligas, it fielded 33 Lingayat candidates, out of which four of them had won the election. This time, they have named 15 Lingayat candidates in its first list of 93 candidates.

Veerashaiva-Lingayats community, who are considered to be the BJP's core voter base, account for about 15 per cent of the total electorate of five crore. The BJP has the highest number of Veerashaiva-Lingayat MLAs (38) in the 224-member assembly.

However, with Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar emerging as Vokkaliga leader and CM face from the community, the JD(S) is trying its best to expand its voter base.