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Political alchemy demands a seer to neutralise former Karnataka chief minister and BJP strongman B. S. Yeddyurappa’s clout over the powerful Lingayat community in the southern state.

That’s precisely what Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided to do to win back the Lingayats from Yeddyurappa. She will meet Sri Sri Shivakumara Swami, the seer of the influential Sri Siddaganga Mutt (shrine), and felicitate him in the community’s stronghold of Tumkur.

The Lingayats were historically loyal to the Congress until the party high command unceremoniously ousted then Congress chief minister Veerendra Patil in 1990. Frowning at the decision, the Lingayats shifted their allegiance to the BJP, especially Yeddyurappa, who belongs to the community.

The seer has a substantial following among the Lingayats, who constitute 21 per cent of the state’s population.

Sonia’s move, after all these years of so-called neglect of the community, couldn’t have come at a better time.

Her first visit to Karnataka in recent years has been strategically timed as the state’s BJP government struggles to fight off the intense turf war between Yeddyurappa and his detractors. The BJP leader has been shooting deadlines to the party to reinstate him as chief minister or else he would break ranks and float his own party.

The BJP has been forced into a huddle over whether to placate the Lingayats or stand up against corruption - like it did with Yeddyurappa when it forced him out of the CM’s chair for his alleged mining scams.

Caste-based religious leaders wield enormous clout in the state and Yeddyurappa’s hold over the heads of Lingayat shrines is well-known.

These factors have compounded the BJP’s dilemma because it can ill-afford a Lingayat alienation before the assembly polls next year.

Given the internal disturbance within the BJP, political analysts did not rule out early elections. Last month’s bypoll victory for the Congress in the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency could prompt the Congress to force early polls.

Checking these pros and cons, state’s Congress general secretary Madhusudan Mistry and party unit president G. Parameshwara prepared the platform for Sonia’s meeting with the powerful seer.

Reports also suggested that Yeddyurappa, too, was keen on early polls to teach the BJP a lesson.

To this effect, sources said, he covertly facilitated Sonia’s meeting with the Siddaganga Mutt seer. The Congress denied Yeddyurappa’s hand, saying the party doesn’t need anybody’s help to meet Sri Sri Shivakumara Swami.

"The Congress has old ties with the Lingayat community, since before Yeddyurappa cut his teeth," a Congress leader said, referring to former CM Patil. But he refused to delve into how the community drifted towards Janata Dal leader J. H. Patel, another Lingayat, and made him the CM after Congress’s Patil was shown the door.