BJP, Congress spar over Siddaramaiah's boat ride during Bengaluru floods

BENGALURU: The Assembly on Tuesday witnessed a banter regarding Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah’s recent visit to a flooded locality in Bengaluru’s IT corridor by a boat. It all began when Siddaramaiah initiated a debate on the recent rains and floods in Karnataka, especially in Bengaluru. The former Chief Minister said he had to take a boat to reach the flooded villas of Epsilon Layout in Mahadevapura.

In a lighter vein, CM Basavaraj Bommai said the boat ride was in just 1.5 ft water. “I walked on the surface where water has been stagnant for 3 feet. Someone might have misguided Siddaramaiah. We had kept boats for the public. It is absolutely fine if Siddaramiah uses it,” he said.  

Adding to this, Revenue Minister R Ashoka said as Siddaramiah was wearing a ‘panche’ (dhoti), he preferred to take a boat. Irked by this, Congress members said when people are suffering due to floods, the ruling party members are mocking. “I did not use my personal boat. It was an NDRF boat. There was water for 5 ft and I took a boat ride for 500 m,” Siddaramiah said. Intervening, BJP MLA for Mahadevapura Arvind Limbavali said Bommai had inspected the floods in the same locality on foot. “Maybe Siddaramiah is aging and had to take a boat... Bommai is young and it was easy for him to walk,” he quipped.

Further, Bommai said he had seen visuals of Siddaramaiah on the boat and NDRF personnel pushing it.
Earlier, Siddaramaiah took the government to task for not looking into the recommendations made by the Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute which spoke about climate change and changing rainfall pattern.