Tipu Sultan row: Game on to corner Siddaramaiah?

Bengaluru/New Delhi: Reeling from a drubbing in the Bihar Assembly polls, the Tipu Sultan birth anniversary row has come just at the right time for the BJP and Sangh Parivar affiliates to up the ante against the most powerful Congress government in the country and seek its resignation.

Making the demand in New Delhi on Thursday, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra took potshots at AICC president Sonia Gandhi asking, “Did she lead a march and seek Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s ouster (because he failed to stop the violence)?”

While saffron outfit leaders are relieved that the controversy has saved them the blushes after the Bihar defeat, there are at least some rival leaders of Mr Siddaramaiah in the Congress who feel this is just the time to up the pressure on the high command and push for the CM’s ouster.

“The party will not do anything at least till the taluk and zilla panchayat elections are over,” said a source adding, a change of leadership could be on the cards if the Congress loses these elections.

Read:

Amid Tipu Sultan row, Girish Karnad and BJP MP receive death threats

Tipu Sultan row: VHP calls for Karnataka bandh tomorrow

Tipu fest turns Karnataka government plan upside down

Tipu Jayanti: Just votebank politics?

Tipu celebrations will not get minority votes for Congress: Ibrahim

Tipu row: Karnataka police tighten vigil

Meanwhile, new Kodagu district minister Dinesh Gundurao said the state government is contemplating ordering a judicial probe into the Madikeri clash.

Support for the BJP came from an unexpected quarter with noted historians Ramachandra Guha and S. Shettar objecting to the state government sponsoring the birth anniversary celebrations of monarchs.

State on the edge

New home minister Dr G. Parameshwar is in for a tough time with the violence and unrest over the Tipu anniversary celebration spreading across the state. In Bantwal in Mangaluru, a man succumbed to stab injuries while in another incident, stones were pelted at shops on BC Road. Harish and Samiyulla were returning home on their bikes when they were stabbed by unidentified people who arrived in a car. Police are verifying if this incident has a communal angle.

In Hassan district, members of two communities clashed over the anniversary controversy with one group setting a few two-wheelers on fire and damaging four-wheelers parked on the roadside. Two people have already died in the violence in Madikeri on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Sec. 144 has been imposed in Dakshina Kannada district.

Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.