‘Siddaramaiah Was Scared, I’d Have Gone Ahead’: Shivakumar’s Remark on Steel Bridge Project Sparks Row

Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar has stirred a new controversy with a remark that is being seen as a direct attack on CM Siddaramaiah, a month after the Congress formed the government in the state.

Shivakumar said during the Congress government in 2017, CM Siddaramaiah was “scared” to go ahead with a steel bridge project in Bengaluru after protests. He went on to say that if he was the chief minister, he would not have succumbed to the pressure and proceeded with the project.

The remarks came almost a month after the Congress high command settled the CM debate between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who made a claim to the CM’s chair and was initially reluctant to take over as deputy CM. However, Congress picked Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar settled with the Deputy CM post with some key portfolios.

Shivakumar was referring to the Basaveshwara Nagar to Hebbal steel flyover project which was scrapped in 2017 following backlash from residents and welfare groups who claimed that hundreds of trees might be uprooted for the project.

Addressing the Assembly at an event to mark the birth anniversary of Kempegowda I, Shivakumar said he receives many requests for the construction of tunnels and flyovers. “In 2017, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KJ George, who was the then Bengaluru City Development minister, were scared about protests against a steel flyover in the city. If it were me, I wouldn’t have succumbed to the noise made by protesters and gone ahead with the project,” NDTV quoted Siddaramaiah, who is also handling the Bengaluru City Development portfolio, as saying.

However, state minister Priyank Kharge clarified Shivakumar’s remark, saying he would not say Siddaramaiah got scared. “The Chief Minister is sensitive to public opinion. Sometimes, false narratives get floated and good decisions are delayed. I think that is what the Deputy Chief Minister meant,” he told ANI.

Earlier, BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal said Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar will “hit each other with slippers” and the Congress government will not last for five years.

Yatnal also claimed that Shivakumar’s visit to former CM Basavaraj Bommai’s residence in Bengaluru was to blackmail the Congress leadership to get the CM’s post in Karnataka.

BJP MP from Mysuru and Kodagu Pratap Simha had challenged the Congress leaders to ask Siddaramaiah to proclaim that he is the CM for five years. Pratap Simha claimed that CM Siddaramaiah was “making his stooges” to give statements that he will be full-term CM. “Siddaramaiah lacks the courage to tell this by himself,” he taunted.