Bengaluru: Members and elected representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Karnataka Unit, held a protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue, at Vidhana Soudha, yesterday holding the Congress State Government responsible for the stampede in front of Chinnaswamy Stadium which took the lives of 11 people and left several injured.

The protesters, who demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Dy.CM D.K. Shivakumar, said that the senior Congress leaders should be held responsible for the incident and should face legal action. BJP has also decided to meet Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to press for dismissal of the State Govt.

Speaking on the occasion, Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Assembly R. Ashok blamed the State Government for allowing the event to be held despite knowing about the risks.

Further, taking a dig at the State Government for suspending Police officers including B. Dayanand, Ashok said, the BJP would stand in support of the Police officers as they did no wrong.

“Celebrations were carried out despite Police denying permission. This is nothing but a Government-sponsored murder,” he said and added that both the Chief Minister and the Dy.CM cannot continue to be in power sitting on the corpse of people killed in the stampede.

CM, Dy.CM behaved as RCB’s Brand Ambassadors

Alleging that CM Siddaramaiah and Dy.CM D.K. Shivakumar had behaved like brand ambassadors of RCB team, Ashok said that the celebrations started between 4.30 pm and 5 pm at Vidana Soudha despite the first news about the stampede death broke at around 3.15 pm.

“At the time when the event began at Vidhana Soudha around 7-8 deaths had already occurred. Later, Dy.CM left to take part in another celebrations at Chinnaswamy Stadium where the fireworks worth Rs. 1 crore were burst after the deaths of  11 people,” he added.

Reacting to suspension of Police officers for failing to provide information about the stampede to the CM and Dy.CM, Ashok said there were continuous live updates about the stampede incident in various media that were available on mobile phones.

“What were your officers, Personal Assistants and Secretaries doing?” he questioned and added that the present Government should be dismissed holding the CM, Dy.CM, Chief Secretary and other officers responsible for the tragic incident.

Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, MLA Dr. C.N. Ashwathnarayan, MP Govind Karjol, MLAs C.C. Patil and C.K. Ramamurthy and others                        were present.