DKS arrives late by an hour for meeting, 5 BJP MLAs walkout in protest

The Deputy CM stressed that he had convened the meeting to seek everyone's cooperation in building the Brand Bengaluru

After waiting for more than an hour, five BJP MLAs on Monday walked out of an all-party meeting convened by deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar to discuss issues pertaining to Bengaluru affairs.

The meeting was scheduled to start at 11 am in the Conference Hall of Vidhana Soudha. The meeting did not commence till 12 noon.

Upset over the delay, Ashwath Narayan told reporters: “We waited for one hour and the deputy CM (Shivakumar) who convened this meeting did not show up. It is nothing but taking us for granted. We did not boycott the meeting."

Along with Narayan, MLAs Munirathna, Byrathi Basavaraja, S R Vishwanath and S T Somashekhar walked out of the meeting.

Read | D K Shivakumar announces task force for Bengaluru

However, BJP MLAs C K Ramamurthy, M Krishnappa, Ravi Subramanya, Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya, Bangalore Central MP PC Mohan and others attended the meeting.

Responding to allegations by Narayan, Shivakumar told reporters, “That's the true essence of democracy. Protests and criticism are part of our life. I do not know why some legislators left the meeting. I can’t stop people who want to politicise everything.”

The DCM stressed that he had convened the meeting to seek everyone's cooperation in building the Brand Bengaluru. “Those who attended the meeting gave their valuable suggestions. The state government will implement them in due course of time,” he maintained.

Meanwhile, Congress city legislators - Priya Krishna, M Krishnappa and N A Haris - had also skipped the meeting. A section of the Congress party sources dubbed this their way of ‘expressing their deep displeasure’ over them not making it into the Cabinet.

Senior BJP MLA S Suresh Kumar, who did not attend the meeting, wrote a letter to Shivakumar requesting him to take steps to desilt drains and prune trees ahead of rainy days. "There is shortage of gangmen in every ward. The state government must take steps to increase the number of this workforce," his letter stated.

Kumar, himself a cycling enthusiast, also requested the state government to take steps to encourage cycling in the city. "The city should be 'flex free' and we politicians are largely to be blamed for this menace. Cutting across the party lines, we must take stringent steps to curtail the use of flexes in the city," he demanded in his letter.