Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy will participate in a protest march to highlight the alleged irregularities in the distribution of developable land by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority, the Bharatiya Janata Party said on Thursday, PTI reported.
This came a day after the Janata Dal (Secular) announced its withdrawal from the Bengaluru-Mysuru protest march planned by its ally. The Hindutva party’s march is scheduled from August 3 to August 10.
The alleged scam pertains to the allotment of Mysuru Urban Development Authority sites to the wife of Congress leader and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Kumaraswamy had said on Wednesday that his party was not taken into confidence by the BJP before organising the march. The Union minister also criticised the Hindutva party for picking Preetham Gowda, a former BJP MLA from Hassan district, as one of the protest’s leaders, PTI reported.
The minister accused Gowda of distributing pen drives containing video clips of alleged sexual abuse by former Janata Dal (Secular) MP from Hassan Prajwal Revanna, who happens to be Kumaraswamy’s nephew.
Revanna is currently in police custody.
Kumaraswamy also said on Wednesday that his party would not provide any moral support for the BJP’s march.
On Thursday, Karnataka BJP chief BY Vijayendra, Union minister Pralhad Joshi and the party’s state in-charge Radha Mohan Das Agrawal downplayed Kumaraswamy’s comments, PTI reported.
Agrawal said the march was a party programme and that political leaders had not been personally invited. Vijayendra, being the BJP’s state chief, and Kumaraswamy being a key leader of the Janata Dal (Secular), will lead the march, PTI quoted Agarwal as saying.
Separately, Kumaraswamy told reporters on Thursday that Janata Dal (Secular) leaders were upset because BJP leaders had tried to project the march as a programme of the Hindutva party. “This issue has been discussed with the BJP leaders and resolved,” Deccan Herald quoted Kumaraswamy as saying.
The Janata Dal (United) had joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The alliance won 19 out of Karnataka’s 28 parliamentary seats.
The BJP, after failing to secure the majority in the House by itself, had to depend on its coalition partners to form the government at the Centre. Kumaraswamy, a former chief minister, became a Union minister with the heavy industries and steel portfolios.
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