BJP bike rally may turn flash point ahead of polls

BENGALURU: The BJP upped the ante in Karnataka, where state assembly elections are due in April-May 2018, by raising concerns of “anti-democratic” clampdown and “Emergency-like conditions” after the ruling Congress government declined to let them take out bike rallies from five parts of the state on Tuesday to converge at communally-sensitive Mangaluru on September 7.

The BJP has planned the bike rallies under the aegis of the ‘Yuva Morcha’, in line with party national president Amit Shah’s strategy to project the Congress government as anti-Hindu party.

The main objective of the rallies is to demand the ban of pro-Muslim organisations KFD and PFI, which the BJP and the RSS claim, have been involved in at least eight of the 18 killings of their activists in the recent past.

They are also demanding the resignation of district in-charge minister and Congress stalwart from the region, B Ramanath Rai for “siding with the minorities”. Chief minister Siddaramaiah said in Bengaluru after the BJP activists and senior leaders were detained while attempting to take out the rally, “We have no objection to democratic protest.

Let them take out a padayatra like we did (in 2010 against illegal mining) or address public gatherings.

These bike rallies will obstruct traffic on highways and create law and order problems in that sensitive region.” He said he had examined the booklets printed by the BJP for the event.