In what’s bound to be a shock to Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, the seer of the Murugha Mutt in Karnataka, who Shah met on 26 March, has come out in support of the Siddaramaiah government’s decision to grant religious minority status to members of the Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community.
Shah, who was in Karnataka to campaign for the BJP in the run-up to the Karnataka state elections, had visited the Murugha Mutt among other places, on 26 March.
Shah had sought the blessings of 110-year-old Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of the Murugha Mutt, for the party's success in the Karnataka Assembly elections, which are to be held on 12 May.