BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra took strong exception to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s absence at the NITI Aayog meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Delhi on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters in Mysuru on Sunday, Mr. Vijayendra asked Mr. Siddaramaiah to reveal before the public why he stayed out of an important meeting that was convened to gather opinion from different States for making India into a developed country by 2047.
“He should give a statement before the people of the State why he stayed out of the meeting or boycotted it,” the BJP leader asked.
When Chief Ministers of other Congress-ruled States like Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, besides Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.K. Stalin, could attend the NITI Aayog meeting, it is unfortunate that Karnataka Chief Minister chose against participating in the meeting, Mr. Vijayendra said.
Contending that Mr. Siddaramaiah’s decision to stay out of the meeting amounted to injustice to the people of Karnataka, Mr. Vijayendra said the Chief Minister was adopting a “confrontationist” approach with the Centre ever since the Congress government came to power in the State. “Is the Chief Minister sacrificing development for the sake of politics?”, he asked.
Mr. Vijayendra also criticised the State government’s decision to appoint actress Tamannaah Bhatia as the brand ambassador for Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL) by paying a remuneration of ₹6.2 crore for a two-year-deal.
Questioning whether the State government could not find any actors or actresses or any other personalities from Karnataka, Mr. Vijayendra pointed out that KSDL was not started by the Congress government to take such arbitrary decisions.
KSDL was started in 1916 by the then Maharaja of Mysore and the Congress government’s decision was an insult to the late Maharaja’s vision, he said.
With regard to Minister for Industries M.B. Patil’s statement that the decision to choose Ms. Bhatia was based on advise by experts, Mr. Vijayendra urged the Minister to identify the experts.
Reacting to the State government’s decision to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South district, Mr. Vijayendra alleged that Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar was functioning like a real estate agent.
Mr. Vijayendra also questioned Mr. Shivakumar whether he was embarassed about “Rama” in the name of Ramanagara district.
“Is developing real estate the only priority of this government?”, he asked.
The BJP leader also alleged that the development of national highways in the State was not keeping pace with the progress of work in other parts of the country on account of the lack of interest by the State government to acquire land for the projects.
And the reason why Karnataka was lagging behind in the development of national highways is because of the delay in land acquisition, he added.
Published – May 25, 2025 07:02 pm IST
