Bengaluru: Intensifying campaign seeking separate religion status for Lingayats, the leaders of Lingayats have decided to formally break away from the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha and create a new Vishwa Lingayat Parishat to carry forward its campaign. The new forum will be launched in Bengaluru on January 23.

“The decision to create the Vishwa Lingayat Parishat is the result of our unfruitful attempts to make peace with the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha,” retired IAS officer S M Jaamdar, who is spearheading the Lingayat religion campaign, told reporters here on Saturday.

The formation of the Vishwa Lingayat Parishat seeks to challenge the powerful clout of the 114-year-old Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha, which argues that Veerashaivas and Lingayats are the same. Mahasabha leaders have rejected the Lingayat camp’s stake for a separate religion.

“For the past eight months, we tried to work with the Veerashaiva Mahasabha and iron out differences, but it looks like they will not be resolved. Their tone remains the same. We are left with no choice,” Jaamdar said.

The Veerashaiva and Lingayat camps, comprising religious leaders as well as members of the ruling Congress, have been at loggerheads over the separate religion issue. Veerashaivas say their religion predates 12th century reformer Basavanna, credited as the founder of the Lingayat faith. Veerashaivas revere a pantheon of holy men (Panchacharyas). The Lingayat camp argues that Veerashaiva and Lingayats are radically different and that the religion must be called Lingayat. This group says it goes by the ideals of Basavanna.