Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 7 : Karnataka BJP on Friday said that Congress will be punished in the upcoming elections after Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar mentioned that it will scrap the reservation given by the BJP to the communities of Okkaliga and Veerashaiva-Lingayat.
The official social media handle of Karnataka BJP on Twitter said," DK Shivakumar clarified that we will cancel the reservation given to Okkaliga, Veerashaiva-Lingayat, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. For appeasement politics, the right of these communities to be uprooted INC Karnataka will be punished accordingly.
Karnataka BJP remarks came after DK Shivakumar on Friday said that if the Congress govt comes to power it will cancel the reservation issue and will protect the minority interest.
Earlier in March, the Karnataka government decided to scrap the four per cent quota for minorities and add it to the existing quota of two dominant communities of the poll-bound state.
The 4 per cent reservation given to Muslims under the 2B classification of the OBC category will now be divided into two equal parts and added to the existing quota of Vokkaligas and Lingayats for whom two new reservation categories of 2C and 2D were created during the Belagavi Assembly Session last year.
Congress State President D K Shivakumar also said that the communities of Vokkaligas and Lingayats will reject the newly offered reservation quota given to them by the BJP.
"Vokkaligas and Lingayats are people who are called 'annadatas'. They plough the land and give food. They are landowners. We don't want any of their reservation as minorities are our brothers and this is a country for all the communities. Our country is very rich in our culture," he said.
In this regard, Union Home Minister Amit Shah mentioned that the reservation provided on the basis of religion was not as per the provisions of the constitution and that is why it was scrapped.
"Reservations provided to the minority were not as per Constitution. There is no provision in the Constitution to provide reservation on the basis of religion. Congress Government due to its polarisation politics provided reservation to the minority.BJP scrapped that reservation and provided reservations to Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities," he said.
The Karnataka assembly elections will be held in a single phase on May 10, with the counting of votes scheduled on May 13.
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