After Panchamasalis, will it be Billavas who will hit the road?

Mangaluru/Belagavi: 'When the saints go marchin' in…' this is how an old western number by Harry Belafonte goes. The saints if they qualify to be called that way are marching for a cause. The Panchamasali Swamiji has taken the biggest-ever procession in Kalyana Karnataka that has rattled the BJP bandwagon in the current session of the Karnataka State Legislative Assembly and Council taking place in Belagavi.

It is indicated by the mood of the government that after all Panchamasalis may get what they wanted -inclusion into the 2A category of the reservation chart. Top minds have been deployed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to examine the conversion. But in the pipeline there is one more major community that is brewing its own version of benefits in January which might put BJP on the dock. It is the Billava community from the Coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada and from Chikkamagluru and Shivamogga.

However they are called differently in the state. On the Coast in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada they are called Billavas, in Uttara Kannada they are called Namdharis and in other parts and in upghat areas they are called the Eedigas, together they form one of the largest OBC group who are now demanding their caste development Board.

"The march will begin from Mangalore and end at Bengaluru and over 5000 people from the community including cadres, leaders and religious persons will march to claim their rights from the government" Pranavananda Swami of the community said.

"We are looking for a corpus of Rs. 1000 crore from the government for taking up systematic and structured development of the community that have had no socio-economic and political benefits so far, it is not that there were no leaders, we have great leaders in the Indian National Congress from our community that includes B Janardhana Poojary and Sarekoppa Bangarappa who have been the functionaries at the state and central government in different time frames. But the demands of the community in today's world is different, there are pressing issues when our community must advance into the future with new kind of social order, particularly the youth, which is why we are demanding the Billava, Namdhari, Eediga development Board" Pranavananda swamiji said. In fact, if the BJP could win 7 out of 8 seats in the 2018 Assembly Elections it was due to the shift of this community in all three districts (Uttara Kannada partly) and in Bayaluseema, Malnad and old Mysuru regions this community is the only one which can stand at par with the dominant castes like Vokkaligas, Kurubas and Lingayats, though not in number in social influence say the Billava community experts.

This movement will get a shot in the arm if a special breed of Billavas called 'Thiyas' (Malayali Billavas) could extend support. "It will have to happen eventually" say the office bearers of the Malayali Billava association. The BJP government in state and the party state unit may feel the heat soon, as no amount of placation has worked till Thursday to mitigate the situation by the government