BJP demands special legislature session over stampede incident

BJP legislators staging a protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue on the Vidhana Soudha premises in Bengaluru on Sunday. | Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

Alleging that the Congress government itself had violated the law by ignoring police instructions before the stampede during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s victory celebrations here, the BJP has demanded a special legislature session to debate issues that were responsible for the tragedy, which claimed 11 lives. 

BJP legislators staged a dharna in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Vidhana Soudha premises to condemn what they called the “failure of the government” which resulted in the stampede.

Addressing a press conference after the protest, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R. Ashok said people were questioning the manner in which the victory celebrations were held in a hurry and demanded that a special session of the State legislature be convened to discuss all issues in detail.

Pointing out that winning trophies and holding victory celebrations were not new in the country, he said no other State had witnessed such a tragedy during victory celebrations.

He said the Vidhana Soudha police had written to the Chief Secretary on June 4, clearly stating that the event was being organised in haste and owing to staff shortage, security arrangements would be compromised. They had also recommended cancelling the event, he claimed.

“The police had instructed that government staff and their families should not attend the event in front of Vidhana Soudha. Despite this, their families were present. Instructions for CCTV cameras were ignored. The directive to limit the stage to only 20 to 30 people was completely violated, with around 200 people being present on the stage,” he alleged.

Despite the event being listed as a government programme in the order, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed it was not a government event, Mr. Ashok alleged.

He expressed concern that despite such law violations by the government, the police officers were made to pay the price through suspensions.

Blaming the power struggle between the Chief Minister and his deputy D.K. Shivakumar as being the main reason for holding such an event in a hurry, he argued that if both of them had not engaged in a power struggle, people would not have lost their lives. “

The police had informed them of the first death by noon itself. Eight youth had already died when the event began, yet the programme continued, showing that these leaders have hearts of stone,” he charged.

Published - June 08, 2025 08:23 pm IST