The subcaste Madiga, who have been fighting for 21 years, demand special status or they will refrain from voting for the Congress in the upcoming elections
After the state government granted a religious minority tag to the Lingayat community, the Madiga community is now complaining of being sidelined by the Siddharamaiah government.
M.C Srinivas president of Madiga community said, “the government is playing dirty politics and helping the other communities but not us.” He added, that within a month of Lingayats demanding a separate tag, the Siddharamiah government has helped them obtain special status while it has ignored the Madiga community who have been fighting for 21 years.
With elections fast approaching, the state government is leaving no stone unturned to come to power. The Congress government has created a communal difference after helping the Lingayat community, while the other sub caste communities are still fighting for their rights, he said.
Prasadappa K, a member of the Bhoomi community, a Madiga sub caste, said that the Madiga leaders have woken up because the elections are around the corner.
However, Srinivas, insisted that “the Korcha, Khuvi and Bhoomi sub caste people have enough benefits already so they don’t want to support us, but we don’t care about them.”
Narasimha Murthy another member of the Madiga community said that “We are the people who lift dead cows, clean toilets and do all the disgusting jobs, but the government doesn’t respect us.” He added, that if the government doesn’t do anything this time, we will protest and vote against them.
