Just Okay By Lingayat Seer Is Not Helping Rahul Gandhi To Win Karnataka Polls

By Sushil Kutty

If a Karnataka lingayat seer is to be believed, Rahul Gandhi will be prime minister in 2024. With that taken for granted, the Congress can set its eye on winning the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections. The lingayat seer is invested in Rahul Gandhi. He also happens to be from the lingayat mutt which gave“deeksha” to the Gandhi scion and admitted him into the Lingayat sect!

Now, if that isn't a masterstroke, what is? The lingayat is an important segment of Kannada society. And one day is a long time in politics. The current Karnataka Chief Minister is a lingayat, also the two chief ministers before him. The lingayat make up nearly 17-20 percent of the electorate.

Now, with Rahul Gandhi also a lingayat, after being given“deeksha” by the chief seer of a lingayat mutt, the lingayat are expected to vote overwhelmingly for the Congress. Especially knowing that BS Yediyurappa, also a lingayat and a former chief minister, isn't too chummy with the BJP central leadership.

The Karnataka assembly elections are prestigious for the BJP. Karnataka also happens to be the sole BJP–ruled state, which it took from the Congress using the dictum“by hook or crook”. Let's not forget that the BJP doesn't care too much for niceties in matters regarding electoral outcomes and government formation.

That said, the seer who prophesied Rahul Gandhi will be“PM”, he is not alone. Opinion polls always rank Rahul Gandhi behind Narendra Modi on the question“who is your choice for prime minister?” The same question asked solely of the South Indian voter will have Rahul on top, and Modi In the dregs!

In fact, lakhs of voters in Karnataka and Kerala will not replace their social media 'DP' with the tricolour for the 75th Independence Day simply because their current DP happens to be a picture of“Rahul Gandhi”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not know that or he wouldn't have played the gambit and asked the“people” to change their DP to the tricolour.

The question, however, is not how patriotic or nationalist the prime minister of India should be. Nobody ever asked the question, and no prime minister had to prove his nationalism and patriotism, ever. Anybody questioning the patriotism of Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi would have been thrown to the wolves in the Press.

A number of political pundits have said that the 2024 general elections will be fought on the issue of dynasty, and there are enough dynasties in the fray to lend it credibility. Be that as it may, but an alternative narrative can be built around who from the Opposition leaders is the“right” leader to take on Modi and rival him as an alternative?

The manner in which politics has been trending for the last couple of years, at least, the narrative fed to people at large was that Narendra Modi, just that one individual, must be removed from the helm —for democracy to survive; for the economy to revive; for sanity to return; for a safe present, and for a secure future.

With that much clarity, the fight boils down to finding that one political“animal” to take on Modi by the scruff of his political neck and dispatch him to political anonymity. But who? Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, KCR, MK Stalin… The enforcement directorate on Modi's roll-call are seeing them off one by one.

Mamata Banerjee is“tainted by association”; ditto Kejriwal, Uddhav Thackeray is out of the picture, MK Stalin rules himself out. None of them with their regional parties can make an all-India impact to take on the BJP, and Narendra Modi, which leaves only Rahul Gandhi in the fray. The Congress is the main opposition; and Rahul has got the“Lingayat okay”, which is half the battle won to commandeer Karnataka.

At the meeting with seers of Sri Murugarajendra Mutt in Chitradurga, one of them, Haveri Hosamutt Swami, said,“Indira Gandhiji was PM, Rajiv Gandhi PM, and now Rahul Gandhi has been initiated into Lingayat sect, and he will become the PM.” The mutt head Sri Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, interrupted,“Please don't say this… This is not the platform. People will decide.”

Of course, the people will decide, but at least a reference point has been set. There was the time when Randeep Singh Surjewala declared Rahul Gandhi a 'janeoudhari Brahmin”. This time, the lingayat sect of Karnataka has adopted him as its own, with one of its top seers predicting that Rahul Gandhi will be Prime Minister! Already, there is a move to declare Rahul Gandhi, whose“only job is to fight the RSS”, a“non-Brahmin” by elements unfriendly to the Gandhis, saying that the lingayat sect rejects Brahmin-ism, period! (IPA Service)

The post Just Okay By Lingayat Seer Is Not Helping Rahul Gandhi To Win Karnataka Polls first appeared on IPA Newspack .

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