A massive rally was held by members of the Kuruba community in Bengaluru on Sunday highlighting their demand for a Scheduled Tribe (ST) tag. The rally began at the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre in the outskirts of the city on Tumakuru Road and it was attended by thousands of people.
The rally was led by a number of seers including Niranjanandapuri Swami of Kaginele Gurupeetha, Eshwarananda Swami and it was also attended by political leaders cutting across party lines like R Shankar, MTB Nagaraju, KS Eshwarappa, AH Vishwanath, Bandeppa Kashempur. Kuruba ST Horata Samiti president K Virupakshappa was also present at the rally.
But former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah did not attend the rally. The absence of the senior leader raised questions about his stance on the protest. The seers and political leaders urged the Union government to include Kurubas in the ST list. Before this, religious leaders had held a padayatra from Kaginele to Bengaluru, a distance of 340 km from January 15 to February 4.
The crowd disrupted the traffic on the Mumbai-Chennai national highway and traffic police stated that many people who took part in the rally had parked their vehicles on the road, adding to the problems of commuters.
The rally comes at a time when members of the Vokkaliga community and the Panchamasali community are also seeking reservation from the state government. The Karnataka government on Friday referred the demands of the Panchamasali community to the Karnataka Backward Class commission in a bid to contain their anger.