Hubbali, May 6 (IANS): The meeting of some senior Congress leaders, including the party leader and nonagenarian Shamanur Shivasankarappa who is also the president of the Akhila Bharathiya Veerashaiva Mahasabha, has given heartburns to the BJP.

Senior Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa is a powerful voice in the Lingayat community, being the president of the Akhila Bharathiya Veerashaiva Mahasabha and closely related to Jagadish Shettar with the latter's son married to the granddaughter of the former.

The Congress leaders, according to sources in the Shettar camp, have convinced the Lingayat Math that the BJP was trying to systematically annihilate the Lingayat leadership in the saffron party with the forced exit of Yediyurappa from the Chief Minister's post being the first action.

This was followed by the installation of a weak leader like Basavarj Bommai as the Chief Minister who does not have any clout within the BJP and for that matter the RSS - the decision-making body for the BJP being a rank outsider. (Bommai has switched loyalty to the BJP from Janata Dal).

The Veerashavia leaders led by Shamanur, according to informed sources, has reportedly told the Moorusavir Math head of the Lingayat community, Gurusiddha Rajayogindra Swami that powerful leader like Jagadish Shettar was sidelined and even denied a seat by the BJP as part of a well orchestrated plan by the Brahmin leadership of the BJP led by its national organising secretary, B.L. Santhosh and Prahlad Joshi.

Shamanur has also informed the Math head that Shettar being from the RSS enjoyed considerable clout and would have been a force to reckon with in the BJP had he contested and won the seat for the seventh time and this would have led to the Brahminical lobby's move to annihilate the Lingayat community in the BJP.

The meeting, which was held at Moorusavir Math, was attended by other Lingayat Math seers from Navaglund, Rayanal, and Rudrakshi Math. While the Moorusavir Math head issued a clarification that he has not convened any meeting, he did not deny that he had held a meeting with the Congress leaders.

The Congress leaders, according to sources, also told the Math heads that the statement of B.S. Yediyurappa that he would give in writing in his own blood that Jagadish Shettar will not win from Hubballi-Dharawad seat was not a good gesture by a Lingayat leader against a fellow Lingayat. The leaders told the Math heads that this was part of the grandiose plan by the Brahminical lobby in the BJP and that Yediyurappa was forced to issue such a statement as his son B.S. Vijayendra was getting a seat from the traditional bastion of Shikaripura.

With elections on May 10, both camps are sharpening their weapons in the armoury and the meeting of Congress leaders from the Lingayat community with the Lingayat Math heads is very significant for North Karnataka in the 2023 Assembly polls.