Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has agreed to the demand by Lingayat seers to install a 108-foot tall statue of Sri Basaveshwara on the banks of the Ghataprabha river in Belagavi district. Karnataka is awaiting the announcement of dates for Assembly elections.
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He made the promise during the foundation stone laying ceremony of a new Sri Basaveshwara statue in Goaves Circle in south Belagavi on March 15. He said he would get experts to look into the proposal and prepare a detailed technical report.
Mr Bommai said Sri Basaveshwara led a social - cultural revolution in 12th century Karnataka that had lessons for the world for all time. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted his contribution to the spirit of democracy. All Kannadigas are proud of it,” he said.
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Prabhakar Kore, former Rajya Sabha member and BJP leader, said the statue at Goaves Circle was being replaced as it was old and ‘slightly damaged’.
“We have been trying to change it for five years. Mr Bommai agreed to our proposal. The Basaveshwara Park will have a garden, a replica of the Anubhava Mantapa and statuettes of some sharanas who were associates of Sri Basaveshwara.
“The old statue of Sri Basaveshwara was that of him functioning as a prime minister of the Bijjala kingdom. But the new one will be of the saint-poet in the process of writing a vachana (short compositions),” Mr Kore said. “The Veerashaiva Lingayat community would contribute towards installation of the new statue, and also the garden.”
He hoped the statue at Ghataprabha would be modelled on the lines of the Sardar Patel statue in Gujarat and the Kempegowda statue at Bengaluru airport.