 "People rummage through footwear strewn outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium after the stampede. Image: AP")
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has reacted to the tragic stampede incident that took place outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, saying it was a very unfortunate incident that should not have happened. The stampede killed 11 people on 4 June when a huge crowd gathered to take part in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) IPL 2025 victory celebration.
Karnataka CM blames KSCA and other officials
Speaking to the media on Sunday, Siddaramaiah blamed the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and local officials for the stampede. The KSCA had invited the state government to take part in the felicitation ceremony at the Vidhana Soudha. As the event at state assembly was ongoing, the stampede incident occurred near the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the RCB was scheduled to visit after the ceremony.
“This incident shouldn’t have happened, it happened at the Cricket stadium. I don’t have any connection with the cricket stadium. It was an unfortunate incident, it shouldn’t have happened. Such an incident never happened after I became the CM. Prima facie it seems to have happened because of the officials’ fault, so we have taken action. Everyone is in pain, including me,” he said.
“The Secretary and Treasurer of the KSCA invited me to the felicitation programme. It’s not a function we organised. It’s a function they organised, and I was merely invited. They additionally informed me that the Governor was to attend it. Hence, I attended the programme. Apart from that, I am not aware of anything else,” said Siddaramaiah.
The opposition is demanding the resignation of the chief minister and deputy chief minister over this issue. They have blamed the government for failing to properly manage RCB’s victory celebrations. The main opposition party BJP, has said that the Karnataka government was only interested in using RCB’s maiden IPL title win for a photo-op and was not thinking about the people.
The blame-game continues
Earlier, the KSCA shifted the blame to the RCB team and the event management company, stating that their responsibility was only to obtain the required permissions from the government. According to them, handling the crowd and managing entry at the stadium was RCB’s responsibility.
Asked about the allegation that the then Bengaluru Police commissioner B Dayananda was made scapegoat, he said, the Commissioner alone has not been suspended, five officers have been suspended, and the intelligence chief has been changed.
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More Shorts“My political secretary, K Govindaraj has been removed. We have taken a series of actions, not the police commissioner alone,” he added.