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'I don't have any connection...': Karnataka CM blames KSCA and other officials for Bengaluru stampede
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has broken his silence on the Bengaluru stampede that killed 11 people during RCB's IPL 2025 victory celebrations. He has blamed KSCA and officials for the incident and distanced himself from the event. read more
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has reacted to the tragic stampede incident that took place outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, saying it was a very unfortunate incident that should not have happened. The stampede killed 11 people on 4 June when a huge crowd gathered to take part in Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) IPL 2025 victory celebration.
Karnataka CM blames KSCA and other officials
Speaking to the media on Sunday, Siddaramaiah blamed the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and local officials for the stampede. The KSCA had invited the state government to take part in the felicitation ceremony at the Vidhana Soudha. As the event at state assembly was ongoing, the stampede incident occurred near the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the RCB was scheduled to visit after the ceremony.
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'This incident shouldn't have happened, it happened at the Cricket stadium. I don't have any connection with the cricket stadium. It was an unfortunate incident, it shouldn't have happened. Such an incident never happened after I became the CM. Prima facie it seems to have happened because of the officials' fault, so we have taken action. Everyone is in pain, including me,' he said.
'The Secretary and Treasurer of the KSCA invited me to the felicitation programme. It's not a function we organised. It's a function they organised, and I was merely invited. They additionally informed me that the Governor was to attend it. Hence, I attended the programme. Apart from that, I am not aware of anything else,' said Siddaramaiah.
The opposition is demanding the resignation of the chief minister and deputy chief minister over this issue. They have blamed the government for failing to properly manage RCB's victory celebrations. The main opposition party BJP, has said that the Karnataka government was only interested in using RCB's maiden IPL title win for a photo-op and was not thinking about the people.
The blame-game continues
Earlier, the KSCA shifted the blame to the RCB team and the event management company, stating that their responsibility was only to obtain the required permissions from the government. According to them, handling the crowd and managing entry at the stadium was RCB's responsibility.
Asked about the allegation that the then Bengaluru Police commissioner B Dayananda was made scapegoat, he said, the Commissioner alone has not been suspended, five officers have been suspended, and the intelligence chief has been changed.
'My political secretary, K Govindaraj has been removed. We have taken a series of actions, not the police commissioner alone,' he added.
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How redoing Karnataka ‘caste census' weakens CM Siddaramaiah without strengthening Shivakumar
The 2015 Karnataka survey report was placed before the state cabinet this April but its findings have not yet been made public. The resurvey move was announced by Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal Tuesday after the party's top brass, including AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, met with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D.K. Shivakumar in Delhi. Bengaluru: The Congress high command Tuesday said that though the report of the 2015 Karnataka 'caste census' had in principle been accepted, it asked the Siddaramaiah-led government to carry out a re-enumeration exercise to allay apprehensions of various communities and groups in the state. According to political analysts and observers, the Congress's resurvey move reflects the leadership's careful efforts to reconcile differing—and confrontational—viewpoints within Karnataka, effectively diverting attention from the Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede and preventing the Centre from taking credit for initiating the 'caste census' exercise at the national level. 'They (Congress) cannot allow the BJP or NDA (at the Centre) to claim credit for the caste survey, including with regards to the upcoming Bihar elections. That is why the (party's) national leadership spoke about the caste census. The main thrust for the (national) caste census has come from (Bihar leaders) Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar,' Narendar Pani, a Bengaluru-based analyst and faculty at National Institute of Advanced Studies, told ThePrint. 'This (resurvey decision) gives the impression that the Congress is actually leading and the others are following.' Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said the Congress was turning the Constitution into a 'weapon' and 'medium of appeasement' for political gain. However, the PM's announcement of a national census that would include caste count in April has been interpreted by the Congress as a sign that the opposition successfully influenced the ruling party's position on this issue. The messaging for a national audience apart, the decision also has bearing in Karnataka and will possibly defuse some tensions between the CM and his deputy, analysts said. Statements by Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah on the subject indicate that both leaders are claiming some level of validation for their respective positions on the state survey, although the CM appears to have conceded some ground. While Shivakumar has previously sided with calls for scrapping the 2015 survey, the CM officially accepted the survey report. At a press meet following Tuesday's meeting, Siddaramaiah also announced the resurvey and acknowledged that the earlier survey's findings were more than 10 years old, in the process seemingly giving up any leverage he had to thwart attempts by Shivakumar, from the dominant Vokkaliga community, to replace him. The CM hails from the backward Kuruba community. Following this, Shivakumar stated on X: 'Caste census to be redone to dispel doubts over sanctity of data.' Also Read: Who are Panchamasali Lingayats & why they're so important in Karnataka politics 'Door-to-door survey again' In 2015, during Siddaramaiah's first stint as CM, he had commissioned the 'socio-economic and educational survey' in Karnataka, which had 55 questions and cost over Rs 180 crore to complete. It is a widely held belief that Siddaramaiah commissioned the 'caste census' in 2015 to challenge the perceived dominance of communities like Vokkaligas and Lingayats. 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The Siddaramaiah camp had further complicated matters for the party by promoting a narrative that replacing a CM from a backward class with Shivakumar, who belongs to a dominant community, could be politically unfavourable. According to A. Narayana, a political analyst and faculty member at Azim Premji University, Siddaramaiah appears to be leveraging a perceived increase in resentment among Dalits to argue that oppressed communities should have the opportunity to claim the CM's position after him, rather than passing it on to Shivakumar. 'Ground for negotiation' According to the findings of the survey, the total population of Vokkaligas in Karnataka is 61.6 lakh or 10.3 percent. Lingayats are 66.3 lakh or 11 percent of the total population. These numbers are much lower than previous estimates—14 percent and 17 percent of the total population, respectively. According to the government, a total of 5.98 crore people or 94.17 percent of the state's population were asked 55 questions on various parameters for the survey. Though the Congress under Siddaramaiah has relied more on AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) for support, the party has individual leaders who enjoy caste-based support in certain constituencies. 'For the party to put up a strong fight in the next elections, Shivakumar is necessary. It may not be so much in terms of caste but more in terms of his ability to mobilise funds. The reading of some of the Vokkaliga ministers and leaders in the Congress is that if Shivakumar is alienated, it will be difficult for them to win in their own Vokkaliga-dominated constituencies,' Narayana told ThePrint. He added that Shivakumar has tried to project himself as a leader of the Vokkaligas, which has not helped him loosen the grip of the Janata Dal (Secular) over the community. 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