Bengaluru: The proposal to include neighbouring regions such as Ramanagara and Kanakapura to Bengaluru has fueled a political storm in Karnataka, with the opposition parties claiming land prices are being inflated to fund election outings of the ruling Congress party.
Janata Dal (Secular) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy Wednesday termed it as an attempt to rob the identity of a newly created district, while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader R. Ashok called it part of the deputy chief minister’s “business mentality”.
“Not even in seven lives can Ramanagara be broken. DK Shivakumar should understand this. Ramanagara district has been formed after scientifically considering and checking the advantages and disadvantages of the people. Now if we divide the district and add Kanakapura to Bengaluru, the entire district’s population will hit back. Is Ramanagara a boulder to be broken into pieces?” Kumaraswamy said in a tweet originally in Kannada, tagging the deputy chief minister.
In the same post, the former chief minister said that he was not as ‘intelligent’ and ‘evil’ as Shivakumar, who is accused of encroaching upon properties, mining stone and exporting it to foreign countries and making money.
ಈ ಜನ್ಮವಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ, ಇನ್ನು ಏಳು ಜನ್ಮ ಎತ್ತಿ ಬಂದರೂ ರಾಮನಗರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಯನ್ನು ಛಿದ್ರ ಮಾಡಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ. ಇದನ್ನು @DKShivakumar ಅರಿತುಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು. ಜನರ ಅನುಕೂಲ, ಅನನುಕೂಲಗಳನ್ನು ವೈಜ್ಞಾನಿಕವಾಗಿ ಪರಿಗಣಿಸಿ, ಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸಿ ರಾಮನಗರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ ರಚನೆ ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಈಗ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ ಒಡೆದು ಕನಕಪುರವನ್ನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಸೇರಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ ಎಂದರೆ ಇಡೀ…
— ಹೆಚ್.ಡಿ.ಕುಮಾರಸ್ವಾಮಿ | H.D.Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) October 25, 2023
The statements come after Shivakumar’s Tuesday remarks in which he asked the villages of Shivanahalli not to sell their land to ‘Bengalureans’.
At the Bhoomi Pooja and Shila Pooja to restore the Veerabhadraswamy Temple in the village on Tuesday, Shivakumar told the residents there that God had given him the power to increase the value of their property since it was next to the highway.
“The people of Kanakapura do not belong to Ramanagara district. They are from Bengaluru district and it must not be forgotten. All villages will be part of Bengaluru one or the other day,” he said.
Refusing to comment on his deputy’s statement to include Ramanagara in Bengaluru, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: “Ask him this question. I don’t know about this.” He then added that he would discuss the matter with his deputy.
Though Bengaluru has expanded in all directions over the decades, subsuming all neighbouring regions as its own, the statements by Shivakumar were seen as sinister by the political opposition.
Comprising Ramanagara, Channapatna, Kanakapura and Magadi taluks, Ramanagara district was carved out of the erstwhile Bengaluru Rural district on 23 August 2007. Ramanagara is the home constituency of Kumaraswamy. Shivakumar, who is also Bengaluru Development Minister, represents neighbouring Kanakpura.
On Wednesday, Shivakumar said that there were several people from Magadi, Ramanagara, Kanakpura and Channapattana selling their properties and migrating to cities.
“This entire Ramanagara district is part of Bengaluru. Will tell you soon what shape it will take. There is no urgency in doing it but there is a blueprint for the future,” Shivakumar told reporters.
Former deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader R. Ashok claimed it was a ploy to increase the value of properties which Shivakumar owned in the region.
“There is nothing wrong with this proposal. DK Shivakumar himself has said it a hundred times that he is a businessman and politics is my hobby. Whatever he does, he does it for business,” Ashok told reporters, referring to a statement often made by Shivakumar.
“By birth I am an agriculturist, by profession I am a businessman, by choice I am an educationist, by passion I am a politician” is Shivakumar’s go to line.
According to a July report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), Shivakumar is India’s richest MLA with declared assets of Rs 1,413 crore and liabilities of Rs 265 crore.
Shivakumar has often been accused by his rivals of amassing wealth by illegal means, with some of them often referring to the I-T raids on the senior Congress leader as well as his alleged funding of the 2023 Karnataka assembly election.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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