BJP leaders trying to create unrest in DK, say MLCs
:
Manjunath Bhandary and Ivan D'Souza, MLCs, of the Congress have alleged that the BJP leaders are trying to create unrest in Dakshina Kannada.
Taking objection to the way how the BJP leaders spoke to the Deputy Commissioner and police chiefs of Mangaluru Police Commissionerate and Dakshina Kannada in Mangaluru on May 9, Mr. Bhandary said in a statement that the BJP leaders led by its State president B.Y. Vijayendra do not want to restore peace in the district.
'State BJP leaders are hatching a conspiracy to create anarchy in Dakshina Kannada,' Mr. Bhandary who is also Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president, alleged.
Mr. Bhandary alleged that the BJP leaders are making the coastal districts scapegoat to strengthen the party's vote bank. They are trying to come to the power in the State by creating unrest in the coastal belt.
He alleged that the State BJP leaders led by Mr. Vijayendra during their meetings with two police chiefs in Mangaluru on Monday have indirectly threatened them while discussing about law and order situation.
Instead of cooperating with police in maintaining law and order the BJP leaders have exhibited their arrogance, he alleged.
Mr. Bhandary said that people of Dakshina Kannada are clever enough to understand the political game of the BJP. 'The BJP can no longer play with its Hindutva trump card,' he said.
Demoralising police
Meanwhile, while addressing presspersons in the city on Tuesday, June 10, Mr. D'Souza alleged that the BJP leaders are trying to demoralise police force in Dakshina Kannada.
The MLC alleged that the BJP leaders who visited Mangaluru on Monday spoke in a threatening manner with police chiefs. Irrespective of the government in power police do their duty to maintain law and order. 'It is not right to raise objection to the functioning of police just because they did not fall in their (BJP leaders') line,' Mr. D'Souza said.
The MLC questioned why Dakshina Kannada MP Capt. Brijesh Chowta showed interest to hand over only the murder case of Suhas Shetty to the NIA and not other communal murders reported in the district recently.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Print
an hour ago
- The Print
Siddaramaiah cites 1995 law to justify Congress high command's decision to scrap 2015 caste survey
He also said that the socio-economic and educational survey , better known as the caste survey, was over a decade old and needed to be re-enumerated even though his core support base of Backward Classes groups have been pressuring him to release the data. 'Already 10 years are over (and) according to section 11, clause 1 of the Backward Classes Act 1995, it is very clear that after the 10 years (sic) period, a new survey is to be conducted,' Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Thursday. Bengaluru: A day after the Congress tried to mask its decision to scrap the findings of the 2015 caste survey, Karnataka government Thursday cited clauses from the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1995, to justify its high command's directive to do away with the report. 'In 10 years, the population has gone up, socio-economic and educational changes have happened. In the Backward Classes Commission Act, it is clearly mentioned that after 10 years a new survey needs to be undertaken,' he added. He was addressing the media after a special cabinet session was convened in Bengaluru to discuss the caste survey. On Tuesday, the Congress high command tried to find middle ground between Siddaramaiah and members of his cabinet opposed to the decision to release the findings of the 2015 survey. Political analysts and observers ThePrint spoke to suggested this decision reflects the party leadership's careful manoeuvring to reconcile differing–and confrontational–viewpoints within Karnataka, effectively diverting attention from the Chinnaswamy stadium stampede and prevent the Centre from taking credit for initiating the nationwide caste census. Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation K.C. Venugopal said Tuesday that the party accepts the 2015 caste survey in principle but also called for re-enumeration. The decision was viewed as a setback to Siddaramaiah who has advocated for long to address the dominant status enjoyed by groups like Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Insistence on conducting the entire exercise again is also perceived as a political maneuver for upstage Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement for a nationwide caste census. Also Read: How redoing Karnataka 'caste census' weakens CM Siddaramaiah without strengthening Shivakumar 'New survey to be conducted in 90 days' In 2015, during his first term as chief minister, Siddaramaiah formed a single-person panel comprising then Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (KSBCC) chairperson H. Kantharaj, which initiated work on the caste survey on 11 April that year. It completed the survey on 30 May, 2015—having put forth 54 questions to a total of 5.98 crore people or 94.17 percent of the state's population. 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. In February last year, Siddaramaiah accepted the report but did not open the files until earlier this year. When he did do it, and some of the findings were leaked, protests by so-called dominant communities intensified as the population numbers of these groups were shown to be significantly lower than what was projected earlier. Caste plays a very important role in Karnataka's politics and society. BJP is believed to have the backing of Lingayats while JD(S) depends on the Vokkaligas. The Congress under Siddaramaiah has been backed by AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits). Caste trumps party affiliations as Siddaramaiah's own cabinet ministers, including Shivakumar, M.B. Patil, S.S. Mallikarjun, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Eshwar Khandre and several others opposed the release of the report. 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'
The Print
an hour ago
- The Print
Vijay Rupani, Modi's go-to man & the CM who stood tall among the tallest of Gujarat leaders
This reporter asked him about this multiple times and every time he would smile and say he is with the party. Multi-term MP Keshubhai Patel, among the tallest BJP leaders then, and Gujarat's former textiles minister Kashiram Rana would often meet Advani at his residence to complain about Modi and seek his removal. Rupani, however, always maintained a distance from the 'anti-Modi' camp. New Delhi: It was the era of L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh in the BJP, and Narendra Modi was a rising star. Vijay Rupani, a Rajya Sabha MP in 2006, maintained a low profile. The man and his affable smile have disappeared forever now. The former Gujarat chief minister was on board the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad Thursday afternoon. He was 68. The crash brought to a cruel end an almost three-decade political career whose high point came in 2016 when he was made the chief minister of the state. Before that he served as Rajya Sabha member between 2006 and 2012. After Rupani completed his term in Rajya Sabha in 2012, Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, made him chairman of the Gujarat Municipal Finance Board. Also Read: Ahmedabad pilots tried to land in empty area, say aviation experts. See Google Earth images The 2014 challenge & Rupani's rise Rupani worked for the party in the challenging Saurashtra region in the 2014 polls and the party performed well. A few months later, he worked intensively to wrest back the Junagadh local body from the Congress, snatching from the party the only local body it held in the state. Rupani's standing rose within the party and Modi, now the prime minister, recognised his efforts. He fielded him from the Rajkot West bypoll in October 2014 after sitting MLA Vajubhai Vala was made the governor of Karnataka. Rupani won and was made the water supply minister in the Anandiben Patel cabinet. The Rajkot West seat's importance can be gauged from the fact that Modi contested his first assembly polls in the state from this constituency. Rupani was Modi's campaign in-charge in the February 2002 poll. In 2016, Rupani, who had by now served four terms as the general secretary of the Gujarat BJP, was made the state party chief. These were challenging times for the party. The assembly elections were just about a year away and the BJP was desperate to prove it can maintain its hold over the state despite Modi, its most popular leader in Gujarat for years, now moving to national politics. The 2017 elections were about prestige for the BJP. The Patidar quota agitation led by a young Hardik Patel was threatening to dent the party's popularity and its voter base. Then BJP chief minister Anandiben Patel, who was seen taking tough measures against the agitators, was removed from office. And who the BJP and Modi turned to? Vijaybhai Ramniklalbhai Rupani. He was not the obvious choice though. Nitin Patel, who was the deputy chief minister then, was the front-running claimant, his surname bolstering his chances. As the talks of replacing the chief minister gained momentum, Patel had already started accepting congratulatory messages. Rupani never thought he had any chance of becoming the chief minister. When this reporter asked him about this, he said, 'I am happy'. Again, with a smile. But the BJP and Modi surprised one and all when they announced Rupani, from the neutral Jain-Bania community, as Anandiben's successor. He was in Rajkot to celebrate his birthday when his name was announced as the chief minister. Rupani steered the BJP to victory in the December 2017 assembly polls, overcoming the headwind caused by the Patidar agitation and a resurgent Congress. In the 182-seat assembly, the BJP won 99 seats. It was the lowest BJP tally in the state since it came to power, but enough for a majority. Rupani was picked as the chief minister again. Also Read: What Air India's fleet looks like in 2025 'Everybody's friend' Rupani's next big political challenge in the state came in 2019. But he delivered once again, helping the BJP win all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The credit was given to Modi, and Rupani made no complaints. 'Whatever duty was assigned to him by the party, he tried to fulfill them without making a noise about it,' multi-term MP Haren Pathak, an Advani loyalist who was also a minister of state during the Vajpayee government, told ThePrint Thursday. 'He was a man of organisation. He never had any issue with any leader. He was everybody's friend. When Narendrabhai sent him to Rajya Sabha in 2006, he never said he achieved anything, like others do, to attract the limelight.' During his second term, Rupani helped the BJP retain all eight municipal corporations and win civic body polls in the state. His tenure as the chief minister was without any major controversy even though he faced criticism for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. His administration faced serious questions about alleged mismanagement of oxygen supply which led to deaths in hospitals. His image was dented. What also harmed him politically was belief in some quarters that he maintained a low-profile as chief minister and the government was run effectively by civil servants. The BJP replaced him as chief minister before the 2022 assembly polls, with Bhupendra Patel taking over. Rupani accepted the party's decision, without any complaint. He was later made the party's Punjab in-charge, and it would remain his last organisational assignment. Rajendra Trivedi, who worked in the first Rupani cabinet as sports and arts minister, recalled an incident. 'Unlike other chief ministers, he was not intimidating. No worker ever felt under pressure thinking 'CM saheb naraz ho jayenge (the chief minister will get angry). They spoke to him without fear,' Trivedi told ThePrint Thursday. 'Once I met the chief minister with an idea to launch a scheme for elderly pilgrims. He immediately said start the scheme. I made the plan for the Shravan Tirth subsidy scheme, which was started during his time,' he added. 'I proposed 50 percent state govt contribution with the rest 50 percent coming from the elderly people themselves. But, the chief minister intervened saying 'they are elderly people, raise the state government's contribution to 60 percent and keep theirs at 40. It was changed to 70:30 later. It means, he kept track on small details,' Trivedi further said. Also Read: 'Was getting ready to board from Ahmedabad airport. Then my friend called me to the terrace' The RSS background The BJP fought the 2022 assembly elections under state president C.R. Paatil, and broke the record of winning the maximum number of seats, by bagging 156. But Rupani sat alone at his residence, away from the limelight. Gujarat BJP vice-president Janakbhai Patel told ThePrint Thursday, 'He never showed he was the CM. His predecessor Anandiben Patel's style of working was different. Before her, you have to understand the problem quickly. She was assertive before officials.' 'With Rupani, he would give a patient hearing and offer a solution. Maybe, because he was not too assertive,' he said. Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar) in August 1956, Rupani joined a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Shakha as a schoolboy, before graduating to the BJP via the Sangh's students wing—the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). His father was a ball-bearing trader in Rajkot. Rupani became active in the RSS while studying in an arts college. He honed his political skills during the 1974 Gujarat Navnirman agitation, a sociopolitical movement led by students and the middle-class against economic hardships and corruption in public life. The agitation soon spread to other states, particularly in Bihar, where socialist legend Jayaprakash Narayan extended support and gave a call for his 'Total Revolution'. The movement eventually led to the fall of the Indira Gandhi government and installation of the first non-Congress dispensation at the Centre under Morarji Desai. Rupani, who was then with the ABVP, was jailed for nearly a year during the Emergency. Rupani made his electoral debut in the Rajkot municipal corporation elections in 1987. He became a councilor and served as the chairman of the RMC standing committee before becoming the mayor of Rajkot in 1996. He was later made the in-charge of the Gujarat government's committee on implementing its 20-point development programme. Later, he was made the general secretary of the BJP before being sent to Rajya Sabha in 2006. (Edited by Ajeet Tiwari) Also Read: India's first black box lab for air crash investigations was launched in April 2025
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Chaos in Bengal assembly as BJP protests repeated riots
There was major chaos in the West Bengal assembly on Thursday after Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay rejected an adjournment motion brought by the BJP legislators over the violence in Maheshtala and Murshidabad. Meanwhile, leader of the Opposition in the assembly Suvendu Adhikari moved the Calcutta High Court seeking the help of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and the case was admitted. Adhikari and other BJP MLAs came to the well of the House and protested over the violence in Maheshtala and Murshidabad. Several BJP legislators carried saffron flags bearing religious symbols and accused the government of being "anti-Hindu." BJP MLAs staged a walkout after Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay rejected an adjournment motion on the violence. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Live Comfortably: 60 m² Prefab Bungalow for Seniors in Bouinan Pre Fabricated Homes | Search Ads Search Now Undo Raising slogans against the Bengal government, the BJP MLAs left the House and then visited the Raj Bhawan and met Governor CV Ananda Bose and discussed the violence issue. "The matter is sub-judice, so it should not be discussed in the Assembly," the Speaker said in his ruling.
