A day after the Siddaramaiah government decided to grant religious minority status to Lingayats, it emerged that the Congress-led UPA government had rejected a proposal for Lingayats to be declared a separate religion in 2013. The government had said such a tag would disadvantage people belonging to scheduled castes who follow the Veerashaiva-Lingayat dharma. The BJP seized on the contradiction, saying the Congress move was a desperate bid to retain power by dividing Hindus.