Yatanal counters Yediyurappa, demands reservation for Kurubas, Lingayats

Bengaluru, Feb 5 : Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and his bitter critic within the ruling BJP, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, got engaged in a heated debate on Friday over whether Panchamasali Lingayats be given reservation under the 2A category.
Panchamasali Lingayat is a sub-section of the Lingayat community, to which Yatnal belongs.
This incident took place when Yediyurappa was addressing the debate on the Governor’s speech in the state Assembly. Yatnal suddenly got up and demanded Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kaageri to allocate him time to speak on the ongoing ‘padayataras’ by two powerful communities – Kurubas and Panchamsali – which have been demanding reservation for them.
The Speaker tried to play down the issue by asking Yatnal not to raise the ‘issue’ at this juncture as Yediyurappa was speaking. “This is not the time to raise this issue,” Kaageri said.
Enraged over this, Yatnal retorted that when will members like him get a chance to speak on issues they want to raise.
“This is a platform to raise such issues. I want Chief Minister Yediyurappa to clarify his government’s stand on reservation to these communities, whose seers along with several supporters have been taking out padayatras for the last 20 days,” he said.