Bidar: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai faced protests from a group of men claiming to be Dalits for not garlanding the statue of B. R. Ambedkar next to the ‘Jan Sankalp Yatra’ site at Humnabad here in the District on Tuesday October 18. The protesters shouted slogans against the CM and sloganeered ‘Go Back.’
The Chief Minister was in the District on Tuesday as part of the BJP’s ‘Jan Sankalp Yatra’. During his visit, a group of people waiting near the Ambedkar statue waved to the CM to garland the statue. As the convoy did not stop, the locals gathered there and shouted slogans against the CM.
Garlanding the statue was not on the CM’s list of scheduled programmes. The group of persons who demanded that the Ambedkar statue be garlanded had beforehand not appealed to any authorities leading to the said confusion.
In the video, the Deputy Commissioner is seen pacifying the protesters.
The incident comes at a time when the BJP and the Congress are at loggerheads over taking credit for the hike in SC/ST reservations. Recently, the State Government decided to implement the Justice Nagmohan Das Committee Report.
Bommai addressed rallies at Aurad and Humanabad in District on Tuesday and targeted Opposition Leader and Former CM Siddaramaiah.
Interestingly, while addressing a rally in Humanabad, he referred to the town as Jayasimhnagar.
“We have collected details of the irregularities that have taken place during the Siddaramaiah Government. We will send it to Rahul Gandhi. I want to ask him, what punishment will you give to your partymen?” Bommai said.
The Chief Minister had visited Bidar alone on Tuesday as Former CM B. S. Yediyurappa left for Delhi to attend a meeting of the BJP’s Central Election Committee.
The BJP has formed various teams for the ‘Jan Sankalp Yatra’ and in the first batch, Bommai and Yediyurappa are visiting different constituencies across the State.
Report By Yohan P. Honnaddi
