Vokkaligas have been demanding an increase in reservations from existing 4% to 12%.
NEW DELHI::Making yet another bid to the Chief Minister’s post, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar has taken up a campaign hoping to catapult himself to be the Vokkaliga face of Karnataka and edge out Kumaraswamy and a few BJP leaders who are trying to claim the same.
DKS’ bold move to garner a stronger foothold ahead of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls comes at a time when the community had so far largely rallied behind JDS in the Old Mysore region. In recent times, there has been a shift in this trend as in the local body polls and elections to the legislative council.
DKS met the pontiff of Adi Chunchanagiri math, Sri Nirmalananda Swamiji, in Nagamagala about 100 km from Bengaluru to discuss the reservation issue. The closed-door meeting lasted over an hour in which he has reportedly spoken about his plans to carry out the sustained campaign and protest in the Old Mysore region which is the Cauvery delta region, Mandya Tumkur, Hassan, Chamrajnagar, Bengaluru Urban and Rural, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapur where the concentration of Vokkaligas are over 39%. In sum and substance, these areas constitute over 80 seats of the 224 Assembly segments and more number of seats here will stamp his authority over the “CM Gaddi”.
Sources in the Congress told The Sunday Guardian that Team DKS has mapped all 224 segments with caste-wise, age-wise, and gender-wise breakup. “This is also one of the reasons how we caught voter deletion campaign,’’ he said. Coming to reservation, though Vokkaligas come under OBC, it is categorized under 3 A which puts a cap on earning as against availing of reservation. For a long time, the Vokkaliga community has been demanding an increase in reservations from the existing 4% to 12%.
In a bid to garner a stronger foothold in the Old Mysore region ahead of the 2023 state Assembly polls, Shivakumar met senior Vokkaliga leader Nirmalananda Swamiji in Nagamagala to discuss the reservation issue. DKS declared his campaign by releasing this tweet: “Met Sri Nirmalananda Swamiji at Bellur Cross of Nagamagala taluk Adichunchanagiri Mutt and discussed an increase in reservations for Vokkaligas. Existing reservation as compared to population is a grave injustice to the community, which can be addressed by increasing reservations.”
Earlier this week, Shivakumar shared the stage with prominent leaders of the Vokkaliga community cutting across party lines and hinting that if the community comes together and stands behind him, he could become the chief minister. “The Vokkaliga community has a great opportunity this time that shouldn’t be lost,” Shivakumar had asserted at a dominant Vokkaliga community meet, to which he belongs.
Meanwhile, the Vokkaligara Sangha has given a deadline of 23 January 2023, to consider an increase in reservation quota for Vokkaligas to the ruling-led BJP in Karnataka. Against this backdrop, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had said it is easy to give a deadline, whatever needs to be done should be done within the framework of law and constitution. “I have heard in the media, let me first receive their demands. I will sit and talk to community leaders and then consult the legal department,’’ he said.