MANGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday slammed BJP over its plans to hold a padayatra from Ballari to Bengaluru over the recent Ballari clash.
“Let them do it. Peoplel will reject it. Congress carried out a padayatra for a specific reason - Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s report on illegal mining and Ballari being turned into a republic by the Reddy brothers. When we questioned it in the Assembly, (then CM) BS Yediyurappa and the Ballari brothers challenged us and so we took out the padayatra,” the CM said, responding to a media query.
Siddaramaiah questioned the need for the BJP’s padayatra now and blamed leaders Janardhana Reddy and B Sriramulu for the Ballari clash.
“Who removed the banner? That was the trigger, isn’t it? There would have been no instigation if the banner was not removed. The banner was about the inauguration of a Maharshi Valmiki statue. What was the need to remove it? BJP leaders are doing this out of jealously as they have lost the ground in Ballari after the Reddy brothers lost election there,” he said.
On the BJP planning to meet the governor to urge him to reject the Hate Speech Bill, the CM said this Bill was unanimously approved and the governor has neither given his assent nor returned it. He said if invited they will meet the governor and convince him to give assent to the Bill.
To another query, he denied that there was a tussle for leadership change in the Congress government.