As Revanna takes off to Australia for study tour, BJP takes up drought tour in state

BENGALURU: In what can prove to be a controversial tour of down under, public works department minister and chief minister H D Kumaraswamy’s brother, H D Revanna has flown out of the country amidst a political crisis in the state.

According to secretariat officials, Revanna’s tour of Australia was a “pre-sanctioned” tour to study the infrastructure projects in that nation and to be implemented in the state.

It is said Revanna flew out on Saturday early morning along with a team of 16 officials including PWD additional chief secretary Rajneesh Goel and is scheduled to return on January 23.

“The Australian tour of the minister and the department officials was pre-approved by the CM prior to the entire political drama in the state,” said a CMO spokesperson.

The situation may prove to be controversial as, at the other end, the opposition BJP has decided to embark upon a state tour to survey the drought mitigation measures taken up by the coalition government.

With the Congress legislators “holed up” in a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru and Revanna having taken off to Australia, the BJP has decided to use the “political opportunity” and attack the government for its “insensitive” attitude towards the people of the state.

It may be recalled that the BJP had already toured the state to study the drought situation just two months ago, with five teams visiting the entire state and also Kodagu, which was flood hit in 2018.

According to party sources, this time, the drought tour is more of a political agenda than to study the situation in the state.

“Everything is politics, we cannot deny it. But we will also take stock of the drought mitigation measures which have been embarked upon by the government in the last two months,” said a BJP office-bearer.

According to BJP leaders, the drought tour was conceived just two days ago to push the public perception against the ruling coalition of being “unstable” and “inactive”.

The tour will see five teams going across the state with senior party leaders including B S Yeddyurappa, former CM Jagadish Shettar, former deputy chief ministers R Ashoka and K S Eshwarappa along with party seniors like Basavaraj Bommai, Arvind Limbavali and others to travel is various teams across the state.

“The study tour will see us interacting with the deputy commissioners of the districts and seek information. We are waiting for the senior leaders to arrive from Delhi and then conceive a concrete action plan for the drought teams,” said party state general secretary N Ravi Kumar, who will be accompanying Yeddyurappa to the districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Chamrajnagar and Mysuru.

Meanwhile, the government has extended its support to the BJP drought tour albeit with sarcasm.

Water resources minister D K Shivakumar said the BJP, though has woken up late, is welcome to study the drought situation in the state and that the government will extend its full support to the opposition teams.

“We welcome the BJP drought study tour. I am happy that they have atleast woken up to the situation now. We will extend our support to the opposition for these study tours,” said the minister.