BENGALURU: The Basavaraj Bommai government was forced to cancel its big ticket rally that was scheduled for Thursday following the murder of BJP youth leader Praveen Nettaru that has angered party workers across the state. BJP national president JP Nadda, who was supposed to be the chief guest at the event in Doddaballapur, advised Bommai against continuing with the rally. The Chief Minister then discussed the matter with BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel and his cabinet colleagues Dr K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj.
After these deliberations, Bommai called a hasty press conference at his residence on Wednesday midnight and announced cancellation of the Janothsava programme. Though the rally was planned with an objective of strengthening the party’s base in the Old Mysuru Region, the BJP think tank felt that it was not wise to go ahead with it when BJP workers are up in arms against the government for failing to protect them.
But Bommai stated that his conscience did not permit holding the rally at a time when a party worker was murdered. “After our party worker Praveen was killed on Tuesday, and party workers expressed their anguish, we had to take this decision,” he said.
According to sources, the cancellation of the event came as a setback to ministers Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj who had put all efforts to mobilise people ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls. As the decision came at midnight, food was already prepared for over 20,000 people by then. “The pulav and sweets were distributed to schools, hostels and orphanages in the vicinity of the venue,” said Dheeraj Muniraju, a BJP leader.
The government had actually planned similar event and a series of rallies across the state, all of which may now get delayed due to the resent situation. If all had gone well, Bommai would have also held deliberations with Nadda about cabinet expansion which was due for a long time. But the Chief Minister clarified that he is likely discuss this with the high command during his next visit to the national capital.
According to sources Bommai is likely to visit New Delhi on August 7 for a meeting of the Group of Ministers on GST rate rationalisation.