Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Mar 26: A day after Congress released the list of 124 candidates for the legislative assembly polls in the state, Pranavananda Swamiji Peetadipathi of Brahmashree Narayana Guru Shakthi Peeta, Kalburagi has urged the Congress party to announce two more Billawa candidates from Dakshina Kannada district.

Addressing a press meet here on Sunday, March 26, he said, "In the district, the party has already has announced the name of a candidate from the community. Though there is a majority of votes from Billawas, Edigas, and Namadari communities in the state, the grand old party has announced the names of six candidates from the community. In the district, out of eight constituencies in the district, six constituencies had the highest number of Billawa votes."

"In this regard, I had discussed with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader Venugopal in this regard. Tomorrow, I will be meeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to discuss the issue. Political parties should give us our rights. The same has also been discussed with other political parties," he added.

In the Billawa community majority constituencies, the political parties including Congress, BJP, and JD(S) should give priority to people from the community by fielding them as candidates for the upcoming elections. People from the community should vote for the people from the community to uplift themselves socially, economically, educationally and also gain social justice besides getting its rights, he added.

He said that in the first list, Congress had announced most of the candidates from the Lingayat community. In Mandya nine of them were from the Vokkaliga community. The community had missed political powers due to suppression from the upper castes, he said.

"If Congress does not announce names of two more names of the Billawa community, a state-level meeting of community leaders will be called and the further course of action will be decided," he said.

Swamiji called upon people from the Billawa community to vote for the people of the community irrespective of the party that they belong.

"In the district, as many as 11 people from the Billawa community were aspirants who had deposited Rs 2 lac. I will meet them to hear their grievances," he said.

Though the BJP government has announced the setting up of a corporation for the community, it had not released funds for the same, the Swamiji said. He also urged the government to release the funds within the next four days and fulfill all the promises made to the community.

"If the parties fail to issue the tickets to people from the community, leaders from the community will field independent candidates in the constituencies where there are the highest number of Billawa votes. We will also take other communities into confidence," Pranavananda Swamiji said.

Answering a media query as to why prominent leader of the community B Janardhana Poojary had lost the elections despite a large number of voters existed from the Billawa community, Swamiji said Janardhana Poojary lost the elections due to political polarisation in the district although Billawas had voted for him.