Bengaluru stampede: Siddaramaiah attacks BJP over demand for his resignation
Several BJP leaders were detained on Tuesday morning in Bengaluru when they began marching towards the CM’s official residence
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for demanding his resignation over the June 4 stampede during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) victory celebrations that claimed 11 lives and left several others injured.
Accusing the BJP of “politicising” the incident, he asked the BJP leaders to seek the resignation of those responsible for the Ahmedabad plane crash, collapse of a pedestrian suspension bridge in Morbi in Gujarat and stampede during the Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh.
“Were the chief ministers of those states not from the BJP? Not only did they not resign, but those governments have also not conducted a proper investigation into these incidents,” he said.
Defending his government’s handling of the stampede, he said, “What happened near Chinnaswamy Stadium is an unfortunate accident. As a responsible government, we have taken accountability for the incident.”
He added that the state government took action against the Bengaluru city police commissioner, the chief of the state intelligence department, and the CM’s political secretary.
He said that a one-member commission led by retired justice John Michael Cunha had been constituted to conduct a thorough investigation.
Several BJP leaders were detained on Tuesday morning in Bengaluru when they began marching towards the CM’s official residence after holding a protest at Freedom Park demanding the resignation of the CM and the deputy CM, DK Shivakumar, officials aware of the matter said.
BJP state unit president BY Vijayendra, leader of opposition (LoP) in the assembly R Ashok, LoP in the council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, and former deputy CM CN Ashwath Narayan were among those taken into custody.
The protest staged by the BJP leaders, Siddaramaiah said, revealed their political motivations. “Politicising tragedies is not new to the BJP. It is ingrained in their DNA to pounce like vultures over every incident of death, accident, or violence,” he said.
He listed several national-level incidents under BJP rule that did not result in resignations, including the 2002 Gujarat riots, where he noted that then-chief minister Narendra Modi did not step down despite suggestions from then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
He questioned the delay in the identification of the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack and said, “In April this year, during the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, 26 Indians lost their lives. Our party did not demand the resignation of the Prime Minister over this incident. We merely requested a special parliamentary session to discuss it, which was also denied by the Prime Minister. Even now, the perpetrators of this attack have not been identified. Isn’t this a failure of the central government?”
Earlier, while addressing protesters, both Vijayendra and Ashok called on BJP workers and leaders to continue their campaign until both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar resigned over the stampede incident.
Vijayendra alleged that the Congress government had hastily organised a felicitation programme outside the Vidhana Soudha to capitalise on the RCB’s IPL win, and claimed internal rivalry between the top two leaders led to chaotic planning.
“The political tussle between the CM and Deputy CM resulted in organising the victory celebrations in a hurry, much against the advice of the police,” Vijayendra alleged. He further claimed the deputy CM tried to outsmart the chief minister by attending the Chinnaswamy Stadium event to make his presence felt.
