Bengaluru BJP MLAs walk out of all-party meet after DK Shivakumar's late arrival

They alleged that DK Shivakumar who invited them to the meeting is unpunctual and arrived to the venue after one hour of the scheduled time.

Five MLAs belonging to BJP walked out of an all-party meeting called by Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Monday to discuss issues pertaining to Bengaluru. They alleged that DK Shivakumar who invited them to the meeting is unpunctual and arrived to the venue after one hour of the scheduled time.

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar.

Speaking with the reporters, Bengaluru’s Malleshwaram MLA Ashwathnarayan said, “We waited for one hour and the deputy CM who had called for the meeting did not show up. It is nothing but taking us for granted and deliberately disrespecting us. We cannot wait for more than an hour, which is why we walked out.” Along with Ashwathnarayan, Munirathna, Byrathi Basavaraja, SR Vishwanath and ST Somasekhar are four other MLAs who walked out of the meeting. However, other BJP MLAs like CK Ramamurthy, Krishnappa, Ravi Subramanya and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya attended the meeting. The meeting which was scheduled to begin at 11am was called to discuss Bengaluru’s civic issues, ahead of monsoon season. The recent spell of rain once again exposed the civic apathy in Karnataka’s capital and residents of Bengaluru are expecting the new government to fix the issues with timely intervention. Out of 28 constituencies in the IT capital, BJP won 16 seats and Congress only managed to win 12.