The three factors that led to the Lingayats shifting loyalties to BJP in Karnataka

Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have played crucial roles in the deciding on how the Lingayats vote in Karnataka. There have been certain political decisions that have made the shift.

At an event in Shivamogga, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Congress had insulted two top Lingayat leaders-S Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil.

While the insult to Nijalingappa and Patil have been major reasons for the Congress losing out to the Lingayat votes, there are plenty of other factors why this transfer has taken place.

OneIndia caught up with India's top psephologist, Dr. Sandeep Shastri to understand how the transfer of Lingayat votes took place in Karnataka.

The elections in Karnataka are due in April-May.

The Lingayats form nearly 17 per cent of the population and the BJP has over the years managed to nag 60 to 70 per cent of that vote bank. The fact that the BJP has brought B S Yediyurappa back as its mascot for the upcoming elections is also a signal of how important the Lingayat vote bank is.

Nijalingappa:

Dr. Shastri says that Nijalingappa was the Congress president when the party split and Indira Gandhi at the time played a major role in it. Nijalingappa was leading the office bearers as party president and was seen as someone coming in her way to strengthen her role as the Prime Minister of the country, Dr. Shastri explains.

The tipping point was the process for the selection of the Congress' candidate for the country's presidential election. Indira Gandhi was not happy with Nijalingappa's choice of selecting Sanjeeva Reddy for the post of president. Before the last date of nominations, she got V V Giri to resign as vice president and contest as an independent candidate. She then began the move to tell the electoral college to vote as per their conscience. The official Congress candidate was defeated and this led to a split in the party. Dr. Shastri explains.

Veerendra Patil:

Veerendra Patil had broken away from the Congress and contested the elections against Indira Gandhi in Chikmagalur and lost. This was the come back elections for Indira Gandhi. In the early 1990s, he returned to the Congress and in 1989 became the chief minister of Karnataka, Dr. Sandeep Shastri said.

There was however a very messy ending to his term. He had suffered a stroke and was in hospital, when Rajiv Gandhi came to Bengaluru (then Bangalore) made an insensitive statement that there would be a new chief minister. At that time, the V P Singh government was in power at the centre.

Patil protested and said that there is no vacancy in Karnataka and this led to a stand-off between the two. Patil refused to resign and the Congress party suspended him, while getting Bangarappa elected as the leader. When Patil stood his ground, the Governor dismissed the chief minister and got president's rule imposed in Karnataka, Dr. Shastri says. This in turn angered the Congress as they had 170 MLAs in the 224 member assembly at that time. Later Bhanupratap Singh was changed as Governor and Khurshid Alam Khan was brought in.

The Congress government was reinstated with S Bangarappa being made the Chief Minister, Dr. Shastri explained.

This was seen as a major insult by Patil's supporters and that anger lingers on even today, Dr. Shastri says.

The Lingayat vote transfer:

The Lingayat vote getting transferred to the BJP cannot be attributed only to the insults to Nijalingappa and Patil, Dr. Shastri says. It is in fact a combination of factors and began in the 1980s. One must also look at the Ramakrishna Hegde factor in this, he adds.

The fact that Ramakrishna Hegde left the Janata Party, formed the Lok Shakti and aligned with the BJP is another factor, he added. Hegde despite being a Brahmin commanded a lot of respect from the Lingayat community. The rise of Yediyurappa in the BJP also was another factor for the consolidation of the Lingayat votes in favour of the party, Dr. Shastri says.

He goes on to explain," in the 1980s, you had a troika of leadership in the Janata Party. The top leaders were Hegde, S R Bommai and H D Deve Gowda. They represented the Brahmins, Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Hegde being from northern Karnataka echoed the support and respect of the Lingayats, which is dominant in this region. Added to this was the presence of Bommai a strong Lingayat leader."

"In 1988, when Hegde stepped down as chief minister, he made Bommai the CM and not Deve Gowda. Later on Gowda went on to becoming the prime minister, following which he suspended Hegde from the party. Hegde formed the Lok Shakti and aligned with the BJP. This provided the shift in the Lingayat votes to a large extent in favour of the BJP. Furthermore it was only the BJP which could project a strong Lingayat CM candidate in the form of Yediyurappa and this consolidated the vote bank further," Dr. Shastri says.

"Hence if you were to ask me, what led to the shift in Lingayat votes in favour of the BJP, I would say there are three aspects. The anger of the community about the way in Patil was treated. The aligning of Ramkrishna Hegde and the BJP. Third-the rise of Yediyurappa and the BJP's ability to project a strong Lingayat face," Dr. Sandeep Shastri says.