BENGALURU: Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said his party will not hold the Madikeri Chalo rally on August 26 as the Kodagu district administration is imposing prohibitory orders from 6 am on Wednesday till 6 pm on August 27. The district administration took the decision as Congress was planning the protest against the egg attack on Siddaramaiah, while BJP too had planned another rally on the same day.
Siddaramaiah said, “I will not violate the law. The protest is a party programme. I have decided to postpone it after discussions with party leaders.’’On the controversy over him visiting a temple after eating chicken, he said, “I didn’t go to the temple after eating meat in Kodagu. I ate rice roti and bamboo shoots curry that day. It was also confirmed by former MLC Veena Achaiah. For the sake of argument, I had said what was the problem if I ate chicken.”
He said, “I had gone to Kodagu to see the flood damage. In Madikeri, a retaining wall was constructed recently at a cost of Rs 7.5 crore. But now it is falling apart. To ensure that it does not collapse, sandbags have been placed to support it. I was told that when Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai visited Kodagu, he was prevented by the local MLA from seeing the retaining wall. This is because the MLAs and contractors have looted money and done poor work.
They protested and threw eggs so that I wouldn’t see the wall. When my car was being attacked the police were just standing there and watching. Instead of taking action against the attackers, they lathi-charged Congress supporters. The protesters had wrapped stones in cloth and hit my car, while some threw eggs. Clearly, these protests were sponsored by the state administration.’’
Siddaramaiah said, “Sampath, who threw the eggs, is an RSS and BJP follower. After he was arrested, MLA Appachu Ranjan got him released from the police station. Later, BJP claimed that he is a Congress worker. There are photographs of Appachu Ranjan with Sampath. They deliberately lied that he was a supporter of Congress leader Jivijaya. But Jivijaya has clarified that he does not know Sampath.”
He said, “The government is out to tarnish my image and spread misinformation about me. After the attack on my car, Bopaiah challenged me saying, ‘Come to Kodagu and see’. Are we in a free India? How can they challenge the Leader of the Opposition like this?’’