DKS vs Siddaramaiah: Caste census splits Karnataka Congress wide open

Recent developments in Karnataka, where Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has aligned with Vokkaliga leaders to urge the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government to discard a 2015 caste census report, have ignited a new round of power struggle between the two leaders.

The controversy has prompted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to highlight the contradictions within the Congress regarding the issue of caste census and the Opposition INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc.

Shivakumar, the Congress’ foremost Vokkaliga leader and its state unit chief, has signed a petition demanding that the state government scrap the socio-economic and educational survey conducted by the earlier Siddaramaiah government in 2015. The petition calls for a fresh ‘scientific’ caste census.

In the Congress manifesto for the Karnataka Assembly polls in May 2023, the party pledged to increase reservations to 75 per cent. It committed to raising the quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, and restoring the 4 per cent reservation for Muslims. The manifesto, and later Siddaramiah, promised to implement the 2015 caste census report.

On Tuesday, just days before the state backward class commission was scheduled to submit the updated report, Siddaramaiah reaffirmed his commitment to accepting the updated report of the Kantharaj Commission on the social, economic, and educational status of castes. He also supported party leader Rahul Gandhi’s call for a nationwide caste census.

While the findings of the 2015 report were not officially released, leaked data indicated a substantial decrease in the numbers of Lingayats and Vokkaligas, two of Karnataka’s most politically influential castes, from 17 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, to below 10 per cent.

The report could bolster Siddaramaiah’s AHINDA (a Kannada acronym for Alpasankhyataru or minorities, Hindulidavaru or backward classes, and Dalitaru or Dalits) politics but weaken the cause of Vokkaliga and Lingayat leaders within the Congress and BJP, and their respective communities.

Political commentator Gautham Machaiah raised the question, “Why are Lingayats and Vokkaligas opposed to the ‘caste census’? Is it because their political superiority will suffer if it is revealed that they are not the dominant communities of the state, as they have claimed for years?”

The BJP’s state leadership has been measured in its response to the controversy, as some of its Vokkaliga leaders, including the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, R Ashoka, former Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda, and Union minister Shobha Karandlaje, have also signed the petition.

The All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha has also demanded that the government order a fresh caste census.

However, the party’s IT cell chief, Amit Malviya, tweeted on Thursday afternoon: “Karnataka Congress is split wide open on the issue of caste census. The survey report has also gone missing. While Rahul Gandhi is screaming about the caste census from rooftops, his own leaders do not agree with him. The I.N.D.I. Alliance is full of irreconcilable differences. Dump them.”

In Karnataka, where the BJP faced challenges in the elections to replace B S Yediyurappa, its most towering Lingayat leader, and looked beyond him, it appointed his son B Y Vijayendra as the party’s state unit chief on November 10.

Among the constituents of INDIA, the Trinamool Congress is not in agreement with the census demand.

The author of the petition is the Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha. Janata Dal (Secular) leaders, now aligned with the BJP, H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy, have also signed the letter.

On Wednesday, Shivakumar said that some communities complained they were not contacted before the census and are demanding a scientific caste census. BJP legislator Basanagouda Patil Yatnal has questioned why no action has been taken against officials of the state commission for backward classes for the irregularities in submitting the report.

On October 5, the commission declared it had lost the original copy of the report. However, its Chairperson, K Jayaprakash Hegde, who was set to retire this month, assured that the data is secure. The government has extended the tenure of the commission by a month.

Division visible
 

Siddaramaiah-led Congress govt ordered caste census in 2015

The Kantharaj commission submitted its report in 2018

Leaked data put the numbers of Lingayats and Vokkaligas much lower than estimates

Siddaramaiah says he is committed to accepting the updated report

Original copy of the report is missing

Tenure of current backward class chairman extended by a month