Bengaluru, Jan 16 : Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister M. B. Patil, a close associate of Chief Minsiter Siddaramaiah, raised eyebrows when he said on Thursday that if subsects are not considered as part of the Lingayat community in the caste census report, it will be a great injustice.

The presentation of the controversial caste census in the Cabinet which was fixed for Thursday has been deferred indefinitely by CM Siddaramaiah.

The development has triggered a debate amid the Congress infighting.

Addressing media at Vidhana Soudha, Minister Patil stated, "The people of Lingayat subsects have mentioned their castes as Hindu Ganiga, Hindu Sadhu, Hindu Banajiga, Hindu Reddy and others. They are all Lingayat community sub-sects. They have registered as Hindu Ganiga and other specifications to get reservations. It doesn't mean that they are not Lingayats."

"They will also have to be counted. When you count them, the real picture will come. That exercise has to be done. All the sub-castes irrespective of whatever they have written, everyone knows that they are sub-castes of the Lingayat community," he stated.

"All sub-sects have to be brought under one roof of Lingayat community and counting has to be conducted. I do not know about the findings of the report. It is to be presented yet. I can't say at this stage that it is not done scientifically because the report is not made public. If it is correct, we have no issues, if it is incorrect, we will convey to the Chief Minister," Minister Patil claimed.

"I saw in the media that the report that Lingayat population is given as 65 lakhs. If this number includes the sub castes it is okay. If they have not counted them, it is wrong. The media should tell how they are getting the details of the report," Patil stated.

"The Veerashaiva Mahasabha and other organisations representing the Lingayat community are independent and I cannot talk about them. They have got their rights. My stand is that all Lingayat sub-sects are to be included under one umbrella. They have to be counted as belonging to the Lingayat community. Ganiga, Sadhu, Banajiga, Malagar get reservation under 2A category and Reddy's gets it under 3A category. It would be a great injustice if they are left out," he stressed.

"We don't know what is inside the caste census report and what are their findings. First of all, there cannot be a caste census. The caste census could only be done by the government of India. It's an exercise, it's a survey. Accordingly, as for the Lingayat community is concerned, we have stated that there are many sub-sects in the Lingayat community," he stated.

In 2014, Siddaramaiah (during his first tenure as the CM) ordered the Karnataka Socio-economic and Educational Census.

A committee headed by then Backward Classes Commission H. Kantharaju surveyed a cost of around Rs 169 crore. The report was ready by 2016, it was, however, put in cold storage by subsequent governments.

The Congress and JD(S) coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy and the BJP government headed by B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai also kept the report pending.

In 2020, the state's BJP government appointed Jayaprakash Hegde as the Commission chief but the report was not made public. Hegde submitted the final report to the Siddaramaiah government on February 29, 2024.

The BJP and JD(S) have claimed that the report is flawed and prepared at the "behest" of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The influential Vokkaliga and Lingayat community leaders have demanded a resurvey. It is alleged that the caste census survey is likely to be used as a tool to show the Muslim population on a higher side in the state.

The delegation of MLAs from the Dalit and backward communities met CM Siddaramaiah recently and demanded the implementation of the caste census report in the state.

However, the BJP has repeatedly chided that whenever CM Siddaramaiah faces political uncertainty, he brings the matter of caste census to the forefront.

/IANS