Bangalore: Caste-wise mobilisation has once again come to the fore in State politics. After the backward classes asserted their strength through the AHINDA rallies held in the past six months and Tuesday's Kisan Maha Sammelan organised by the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the politically dominant Vokkaligas are planning a huge rally here on May 18.

Religious leaders to attend

Janata Dal (Secular) national president H.D. Deve Gowda is organising the rally of Vokkaligas of all sects, which religious leaders of the community will attend. Though it has been billed as `Guruvandana,' the rally is being held to coincide with the birthday of the former Prime Minister.

The rally will be attended by people belonging to different sub-sects of the Vokkaliga caste, such as Gangadikar, Kunchitaga, Hallikar, Morasu, Kanaka, Uttamakula and Dasa from the old Mysore region and those from Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada and north Karnataka, including Bunts and Reddy Vokkaligas.

Mr. Deve Gowda is expected to revive his demand for a reclassification of the State's list of other backward classes. Some time ago he demanded that Kurubas and Idigas be segregated from the other backward classes as they were cornering the benefits of reservation with their numerical strength and comparative advancement. His demand is aimed at Mr. Siddaramaiah, who is a leader of the Kurubas.

According to sources in the Janata Dal (S), the aim of holding the Vokkaliga rally is to reply to the demands of AHINDA (a federation of minorities, backward classes and Dalits), whose conventions were organised by Mr. Siddaramaiah and also some of the Kuruba leaders in the Congress.

One of the leading Hindu mathadipathis in the State, Sri Balagangadharanatha Swamiji of Adichunchanagiri Math, who has a large following among Vokkaligas, is likely to attend the rally along with other peethadhipathis.

It may be recalled that Mr. Deve Gowda, had invited Sri Balagangadharanatha Swamiji to a mega rally organised by him at Cubbon Park here after he openly supported the Janata Dal in the 1994 Assembly elections. The Vokkaligas voted for the party, and Mr. Deve Gowda became the Chief Minister. He later became the Prime Minister. That period saw the decline of the late Ramakrishna Hegde's influence in State politics.

Among those expected to attend are Sri Chandrasekharanatha Swamiji of Kengeri Math and Sri Nanjavadhoota Swamiji of Pattanayakanahalli Gurugunda Brahmeswaraswamy Math in Sira taluk of Tumkur district.

In disarray

Sources said the `Guruvandana' comes at a time when the Vokkaliga leadership in the Congress is in disarray. Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna, another of Mr. Deve Gowda's political foes, is unlikely to be permitted by the Congress high command to return to Karnataka politics, unless there are radical changes in the party set-up.

The only other Vokkaliga leader to challenge Mr. Deve Gowda, the former Minister D.K. Shivakumar, has received a setback in recent months with the change in Government.

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