Bengaluru stampede: KSCA and RCB organised Vidhana Soudha event; I invited governor, says CM Siddaramaiah
The felicitation event for the IPL-winning Royal Challengers Bengaluru on the grand steps of the Vidhana Soudha that preceded the fatal Chinnaswamy stadium stampede was organised by the team and the Karnataka State Cricket Association, not the state government, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday.
Siddaramaiah also said he had invited Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot for the felicitation of the Indian Premier League team, amid reports that the governor had arrived on his own for the event.
'It is not correct,' the chief minister said, dismissing the reports. '(Former) political secretary (to the CM), K Govindaraju rang up Raj Bhavan and gave it to me. I told the governor that I was going and you come too,' he said while speaking to reporters at Gauribidanur in Chikkaballapur district.
To a question, he said he was not aware if anyone else had invited the governor.
The chief minister said the Karnataka State Cricket Association and RCB organised the Vidhana Soudha event on June 4. 'They requested me at 11.29 am (to hold the event) and I cleared it. The chief secretary had also called and I okayed it,' he said.
After the felicitation at the Vidhana Soudha, an event was organised at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Eleven people lost their lives in the stampede while trying to enter the stadium through one of its gates, leading to a massive uproar, with Opposition parties calling for the resignation of Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D K Shivakumar, and Home Minister G Parameshwara.
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But the report, which cost roughly Rs 190 crores, was never accepted as political leaders and seers from dominant communities are believed to have pressured the government to shelve it. Siddaramaiah did not accept the findings and the Congress was ousted from power three years later in 2018. He also did not pursue its coalition partner, Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S), to do the same in 2019. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not want to accept the report since its then chief minister, B.S. Yediyurappa, was leading the agitation to scrap the findings. 'Let H.D. Kumaraswamy, B.Y. Vijayendra and R. Ashoka call for a press conference and announce they are in favour of the earlier caste census. They are making a lot of comments, we will respond to them in the Assembly session. The media must highlight contradictions in the stand of Opposition over caste census. They are trying to politicise it,' Shivakumar said Thursday. 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Siddaramaiah is from the backward Kuruba community and his support base took aim at Shivakumar every time the latter would try to broach the unwritten pact that he would replace the former halfway through the term. Siddaramaiah camp further complicated matters for the party by promoting a narrative that replacing a chief minister from Backward Classes with Shivakumar, who is from a dominant community, could be politically unfavorable. 'Siddaramaiah and Congress used the Backward Classes for their political agenda and then sacrificed the latter. Siddaramaiah claims that he became CM with the support of AHINDA but has today shown that he will cheat the backward classes to remain in power,' R. Raghu Kautilya, president of Karnataka BJP's OBC morcha said Thursday. Shivakumar said the Congress was carrying out the survey again to further its objective of achieving social justice and not for the sake of politics. The state government said the new survey will be completed in 90 days of it being commissioned. (Edited by Amrtansh Arora) Also Read: Karnataka protests 'ban' on its Totapuri mangoes entering AP, Naidu govt says 'rescue your own farmers'
