JOIN US Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president B S Yeddyurappa, State president Pralhad Joshi, opposition leaders Jagadish Shettar and K S Eshwarappa and a host of party leaders, courted arrests before they could embark on their padayatra, from Badalankalagi to Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, near KK Koppa Cross in the taluk on Sunday.
BJP leaders had planned a 14-km long padayatra from Badalankalgi, where a debt-ridden farmer Gurunath Chapgavi had committed suicide, and later picket the Soudha condemning the failure of the ruling Congress in settling the dues of the sugar cane farmers. But the BJP leaders courted arrest near KK Koppa Cross, where the police had placed barricades to prevent them from entering the Soudha premises. Police Commissioner of Belagavi S Ravi had refused to grant permission to the leaders from taking out the padayatra on Pune-Bengaluru National Highway.
Former chief ministers Yeddyurappa, Shettar, BJP State president Joshi visited the house of deceased farmer Gurunath Champagon and handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh compensation to the farmer’s kin.