Bengaluru: Comparing BJP leaders to chameleons, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made a blistering attack on Opposition Leader in the Legislative Council K.S. Eshwarappa for launching a brigade in the name of Sangolli Rayanna for narrow political gain.
Speaking at the 186th death anniversary programme of Sangolli Rayanna organised by Karnataka Pradesh Kurubara Sangha here on Thursday, the CM accused Mr Eshwarappa of dividing the community in the name of the brigade and called upon people to reject it since it was politically motivated. The purpose of launching the brigade was only to install state BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa as the next CM and not to protect the community’s interests. “Where was this man (Mr Eshwarappa) when a group of Kuruba leaders fought for renaming Bengaluru Central Railway Station after Kranthiveera Sangolli Rayanna? Mr Eshwarappa skipped the meetings convened to raise Rs 5 lakh from Shivamogga district to construct a mutt for the community at Kaginele. At last, some local leaders managed to mobilise Rs 3.5 lakh for the cause. The Kuruba community pooled over Rs 60 lakh in the early 90s and helped set up the mutt.”
Ridiculing Mr Eshwarappa for claiming to be the champion of the Kuruba community, he said the BJP leader sided with the Udupi Krishna Mutt when they wanted to dismantle the Krishna Gopura and Kanakana Kindi in Udupi. The demolition work was stopped after he along with other leaders held a big rally in Bengaluru.
Mr Eshwarappa was misusing the name of Sangolli Rayanna for his selfish reasons. “No real Kuruba must support the brigade which has been launched only to help Mr Yeddyurappa.”
Training his guns on the saffron party, the CM said BJP was always anti-social justice and cannot tolerate the upliftment of oppressed classes and backward classes. Mr Eshwarappa never opened his mouth when his party’s Rajya Sabha member, Rama Jois moved the Supreme Court questioning reservation for backward classes. It was BJP and RSS which opposed tooth and nail the implementation of the Mandal Commission, he recalled.
