'Young boy in unnecessary urgency': Tejasvi Surya hits back at DK Shivakumar’s dig over metro delay

Tejasvi said he is indeed in a hurry, because he does not believe public infrastructure should take decades to complete.

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday hit back at Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar for calling him a “young boy in an unnecessary urgency” over his repeated demands for early inauguration of the Yellow Line Metro in Bengaluru.

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya accused the Congress party of indulging in “politics of delay”. (Sansad TV)

Sharing a strongly worded post on X, Surya said he is indeed in a hurry, because he does not believe public infrastructure should take decades to complete.

“I refuse to accept 8.5 years for a 2 km flyover. I represent a generation of Indians who want change now, not in some indefinite future,” he wrote.

Surya accused the Congress party of indulging in “politics of delay” and drew a contrast between past Congress regimes and the current BJP-led government. “He comes from a party where Indira Gandhi would lay the foundation stone, and Sonia Gandhi would inaugurate it decades later. I represent a New India under Modi where our Govt starts work on the project and also inaugurates it,” he said.

Citing Bengaluru’s severe traffic congestion, Surya said the city is “choking” and that it is ordinary citizens, not ministers, who suffer due to missed deadlines and bureaucratic delays. “I’m in a hurry because my city is choking. Because commuters waste hours stuck in traffic,” he added.

Challenging Shivakumar to list any concrete effort he made to expedite the Yellow Line project, Surya questioned his involvement during key phases of the project.

“Where was he when the project was stuck in land acquisition? Where was he when we were fighting for a full-time BMRCL MD? Where was he when we had to coordinate across ministries and manufacturers to ensure timely delivery of rolling stock?” he asked.

He also pointed out that while he led a citizens’ march demanding a firm inauguration date, Shivakumar “turned up three days before the PM’s visit to orchestrate a media circus.”

Concluding his post, Surya reiterated his commitment to fast, accountable governance. “I believe Bengaluru deserves better. I believe in politics of performance, not tokenism and photo-ops. This is not the era of slow-motion politics. This is the era of fast-track governance,” he said.