Newskarnataka – Mangalore

Mangalore : KPCC secretary Ivan D’Souza said on Monday that the allegations of BJP leaders are baseless and far from the truth. He accused BJP for inciting clash during the Samarasya Sabha of the Congress held at Kalladka. He also blamed that BJP is deliberately trying to fan Communal violence in the DK District to reap political benefits out of it.

Speaking at the press conference held here on March 10, 2014, he said “It was a pre-planned attack by BJP and Bajrang Dal workers with an objective to prevent Congress from holding a programme at Kalladka successfully. Miscreants were pelting stones from the hostel of a school near the programme venue. It was a politically motivated attack and also aimed at creating communal tension in the region. It was an attempt by the BJP leaders to ensure vote bank through communal clashes,” he said adding that Chandraprakash Shetty has not made any defamatory speech at the programme.

“We have organised the programme at Kalladka only after obtaining all necessary permissions from the police, gram panchayat and from the tahsildar. However, the police department has failed to ensure sufficient security for the programme. We urge the Election Commission to take action against miscreants and also against those police officials, who failed to prevent the attack,” he added.

In the press meet Ashwith Pereira, Irish Dcunha and Merryl Rego were present.

The clashes broke out during the programme had left many injured, forcing police to resort to lathicharge and use teargas at Kalladka on Saturday. Stone pelting and other instances had begun during the programme soon after the keynote address made by Congress leader Chandraprakash Shetty.

BJP district committee had lodged a complaint to SEC against the Congress leaders including district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai for making defamatory remarks on RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat at the same programme.