Mysuru: Ahead of the JD(S) party’s 3-day Bidadi to Bengaluru city padayatra, Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who arrived in city last evening and stayed overnight at a private Hotel, offered special prayers to Goddess Chamundeshwari at Chamundi Hill Temple this morning.
Kumaraswamy was accompanied by his MLA brother H.D. Revanna, MLC C.N. Manjegowda, former Mayors R. Lingappa and M.J. Ravikumar, District JD(S) President M. Ashwin Kumar, former MLA K. Mahadev, MLAs G.D. Harish Gowda and C.N. Balakrishna and other party leaders.
Speaking to presspersons after visiting the Hill Temple, Kumaraswamy, who is also a former Chief Minister, warned the Congress Government of severe consequences if it went ahead with Bidadi Township project (officially known as Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township-GBIT) at Bidadi near Bengaluru on Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway. Maintaining that the 3-day padayatra from Byramangala to Bengaluru which begins today, is a protest not of his own and instead organised by the party, he said the JD(S) Youth wing President Nikhil Kumaraswamy is heading the protest march, in which the party MLAs would take part.
Reiterating that the people would teach a fitting lesson to the Congress in the next Assembly polls if it goes ahead with the multi-thousand crore Bidadi Township project, Kumaraswamy alleged that the execution of the project is aimed at looting public money. Asserting that the Government is out to destroy fertile lands in the vicinity for the project, he pointed out that he had announced scrapping of the project in the State Assembly when he was the Chief Minister. He lashed out at Congress leaders for unnecessarily targeting him over the project.
Stating that the Congress has no moral right to speak about former PM H.D. Deve Gowda, the Union Minister said the Bengaluru-Mysuru NICE project (officially the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Project-BMIC) was indeed a project of the State Government and not that of the National Highways Authority of India as claimed by State Home Minister Priyank Kharge. “The Government must not allow toll collection on NICE Road. The Karnataka High Court has said that the project itself is a big scam and toll must not be collected. In this backdrop, the Government should stop the toll collection,” he said and lashed out at the Congress Government saying that the job of some Ministers was to target JD(S) day in and day out.
This post was published on August 9, 2026 7:30 pm