Bengaluru: Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Thursday alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having an alliance with Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) at Savanur Gram Panchayat.
“The BJP has succeeded in winning Savanur Gram Panchayat elections in alliance with the SDPI. Now, they accused Congress for allegedly being soft towards the SDPI,’’ Ramalinga Reddy told media persons.
Terming the murder of Deepak Rao as barbaric, the home minister said the police have arrested a few suspects in the case. “The postmortem report will reveal the truth. It will be known by evening,’’ the minister said.
Coming down heavily on BJP leaders for politicizing Deepak Rao’s murder, he said the BJP leaders have been trying to politicise every murder in the state. “It is wrong to politicise murder cases,’’ he said.
The home minister has also made it clear that Congress government has not supported either Popular Front of India or Social Democratic Party of India. “We will not hesitate to punish the guilty irrespective of his political connection,’’ he said.
BJP denies allegations
BJP spokesperson and former MLC Ashwathnarayana has refuted Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy’s allegations on BJP having a tie-up with SDPI to come to power in Savanur Gram Panchayat.
“BJP has 16 members in Savanur Gram Panchayat out of total 21 members. While Congress has only one member, the SDPI has four members. Where is the need for the BJP to have an understanding or a tie-up with the SDPI?’’ asks Ashwathnarayana.
Demanding the home minister to be more responsible before making allegations against BJP, the former MLC lambasted the home minister for issuing irresponsible statements sitting in his chamber at Vikasa Soudha. “I think the home minister merely depended on incomplete information provided by a government official or a police officer and issued such baseless and irresponsible statement against the BJP,’’ he opined.
He advised the home minister to wait for the postmortem report before issuing any statement on Deepak Rao’s murder case.
Siddaramaiah must quit
State BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi has demanded Chief Minister Siddaramaiah submit resignation for having failed to protect the lives of Hindu activists.
“We demand the state government handover Deepak Rao’s murder case to National Investigation Agency (NIA) for free and fair probe,’’ Ravi told media persons in Bengaluru.
Questioning Chief Minister’s ability to rule the state, the BJP general secretary has said that 24 Hindu workers, including Deepak Rao, were killed in the state.
“It proves that there is no safety and security to common man. This is also an indication of the collapse of land order. Which government is in existence in the state? Civilian or Taliban government?’’ he asked.
According to him, the Congress government in state has been flippant towards all the killings that have taken place be it, Prashanth Poojary, Kuttappa, Raju Mysore, Praveen Poojar, Rudresh, Kartik Raj, Makali Ravi, Sharath Madivala, Paresh Mesththa and Deepak Rao in spite of the fact that there is a pattern in these killings.
“The Congress government has withdrawn 175 cases that were filed in certain serious instances. After this, killing of Hindu activists has been going on unabated,” he alleged.
The Congress has entered into an understanding with the SDPI in the BBMP and has been giving it the post of Chairman for Standing Committee on Health for the last three years.
“We demand an unconditional apology from minister K J George and Ramalinga Reddy for their unholy alliance with terror organization,’’ he said.
He has also demanded a thorough probe into all the cases which have been withdrawn by the present Congress government.
