BJP's Sambit Patra hits out at Karnataka CM over Bengaluru stampede, says incident was "government manufactured"

Jun 05, 2025

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sambit Patra claimed that the Bengaluru stampede, which claimed the lives of 11 people, was "government-manufactured," claiming that there was a rift between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar.

Questioning the coordination between the police and the organisers of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) event for winning the IPL final at M Chinnaswamy stadium, Patra said, "This happened because of the issues between the CM and the DCM... The DCM said that the capacity of the Chinnaswamy Stadium is 35000, but 3 lakh people were present in the victory march. Why did that happen?... The police did not permit this victory march, so why was it carried out? Who decided to go ahead with it?"

"Why was there no coordination between the police and the organisers?... The worst part is, the felicitations continued while people were dying," he added.

The BJP leader further criticised CM Siddaramaiah, accusing him of "normalising the loss of 11 innocent lives."

"Was it just an accident or a manufactured stampede? I say it was a government manufactured stampede. The Chief Minister went on to say that such stampedes keep happening and are normal. He is trying to normalise the loss of 11 innocent lives," he said.