Bengaluru: A meeting called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, to discuss the Justice Nagamohan Das committee’s recommendations regarding ‘religious minority’ tag for the Lingayat community has left him in a fix as few of the senior ministers even threatened resigning from the ministry.

The meeting saw heated exchanges between the ministers, both in favor and opposed to the ‘religious minority’ tag for the Lingayat community thus forcing the chief inister to intervene and defer the matter discussion on the same for the next cabinet meeting scheduled on March 14.

Water Resource Minister M B Patil, Medical Education Minister Sharana Prakasha Patila and Mining Department Minister Vinay Kulkarni were tenacious that the state government agree to the recommendations of the experts’ committee and submit it to the Central government, else warned of resigning from the government.

However, Municipality and Local Bodies Minister Bhimanna Khandre and Horticulture Minister S.S. Mallikarjuna strongly opposed their stand and they too warned of resignation, if the Chief Minister accepts the recommendations. The Chief Minister had to use all his experience to calm down both the groups in the cabinet meeting, .

According to the sources, the Chief Minister said that the elections are nearing and the government needs to be careful while taking steps.