After Karnataka bypolls, Congress and BJP shift focus to Maharashtra Lingayat belt

The Lingayat population in Maharashtra is estimated to be 6%-7%, with the community concentrated in districts contiguous to Kalyan Karnataka, part of the erstwhile Nizam State.

As voting for the three Assembly bypolls in Karnataka ended on Wednesday evening, state leaders from both BJP and Congress are headed to the Lingayat belt in poll-bound Maharashtra, where the parties are locked in an intense battle to capture power in India’s financial capital.

“We will meet with other party and community leaders in Solapur later this week. The Congress campaign is running smoothly,” Karnataka Industries Minister MB Patil told DH.

The Lingayat population in Maharashtra is estimated to be 6 per cent-7 per cent, with the community concentrated in districts contiguous to Kalyan Karnataka, part of the erstwhile Nizam State.

Patil, along with former Chhattisgarh deputy CM TS Singh Deo, has been deputed by the party to manage Congress’ campaign in the Solapur-Pune belt, which includes over five dozen seats in the districts of Sangli, Kolhapur, Osmanabad, Latur, and Nanded.

The ruling BJP has assigned North Karnataka Lingayat leaders, including Union ministers V Somanna and former minister Bhagwant Khuba, as well as state Lingayat leaders Arvind Bellad, Murugesh Nirani and Mahesh Tenginakai, to the Marathwada region. Central ministers Pralhad Joshi and Shobha Karanlandje will also be camping in this area. Coastal Karnataka leaders have been deputed to Mumbai and Pune, where a significant coastal and Malnad population resides.

Earlier this year, the BJP made a strong statement in its Lingayat outreach with the induction of Archana Patil Charurkar, the daughter-in-law of Shivraj Patil, one of the tallest Congress leaders from Latur.

Though Patil, the former Union home minister, remains the party, Archana is taking on former minister and Congress MLA Amit Deshmukh in Latur (city) in what is turning out to be a Lingayat vs Maratha contest.

In a bid to woo the Lingayat community, the Congress government led by Prithviraj Chavan in 2014 included 21 sub-castes of the Lingayat community into Other Backward Castes and Special Backward Classes. The Chavan government also recommended to the Centre to grant minority status to the community, a matter that remains pending with the Union.

The electoral dynamics of two other districts contiguous to Karnataka — Nanded and Sangli — have also been changed by the defection of another Congress veteran to the BJP, former CM Ashok Chavan.

The son of two-time Maharashtra CM Shankarrao Chavan, Ashok got an RS nomination from the BJP earlier this year. Despite support from the Chavan family, the BJP lost Nanded in the 2024 LS polls.

Chavan’s daughter Shreejaya is now contesting on a BJP ticket from Bhokar, a seat that the BJP has never won.

The Congress is facing a similar challenge in the adjoining Sangli, where Jayashree Patil, from the family of former CM Vasantdada Patil, has entered the fray as an Independent.

The BJP made a strong pitch for Lingayat votes in Marathwada by fielding Jai Siddheshwar Shivacharya, a Lingayat seer, against former Union minister Sushil Kumar Shinde from Solapur in the 2019 LS elections. Shinde lost by over a lakh votes, with RPI leader Prakash Ambedkar managing to split the traditional Congress support among the Mahars.

Mired in a caste certificate controversy (Solapur is a reserved seat), the BJP dropped Shivacharya in 2024 as the Congress made a comeback with Shinde’s daughter reclaiming the seat for the party.