‘Thanks for winning IPL’: Tejasvi Surya’s sarcastic dig at Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar over Bengaluru stampede

Tejasvi Surya criticized the Congress government over security failures at the RCB victory celebration, which resulted in 11 deaths.

Bengaluru South MP and BJP leader Tejasvi Surya took a sharp sarcastic dig at Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, days after 11 people died in a stampede near Chinnaswamy Stadium during the RCB victory celebration on June 4.

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.(PTI)

Surya posted a photo of DK Shivakumar holding the IPL trophy inside Vidhana Soudha during the felicitation ceremony and took to X to mock the ruling Congress leaders. In a scathing post, Surya wrote, “We, RCB fans, are indebted to CM Siddaramaiah and DCM DK Shivakumar for winning us the IPL after 18 years. They displayed incredible cricketing and leadership skills on the field and brought our club this long elusive glory.”

 

Taking the sarcasm further, Surya added, “We are also very upset about Virat Kohli, other players and the RCB Management for poor arrangement of the security measures at the program organised to honour CM & DK and their families for winning us the trophy. Good that RCB Management is arrested and police commissioner is suspended. They are primarily responsible for security in Bengaluru. Anyways, CM and DKS can now go back to Chinnaswamy Stadium to start practising for their next IPL season.”

The BJP MP’s remarks came amid criticism over the state government’s role in handling the massive crowds during the celebration, which turned fatal. While the Congress government has maintained that the police and organisers are to blame, the BJP has alleged that the event was turned into a political spectacle without proper planning.

Suspensions and arrests

Following the tragedy, the Karnataka government suspended several senior police officers, including Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda. Senior IPS officer Seemant Kumar Singh has now taken charge as the city’s new commissioner.

Defending the suspensions, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “Prima facie, those who have not fulfilled their responsibility properly have been suspended.”

He also accused the BJP and JD(S) of politicising the incident instead of expressing genuine concern for the victims.

Meanwhile, the Bengaluru police have arrested Nikhil Sosale, the marketing head of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), in connection with the mishandling of crowd arrangements during the event.