Mekedatu padayatra no reason for surge in corona cases: Siddu

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru/Ramanagar: Former CM and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Siddaramaiah ruled out the possibility of his party padayatra from Mekedatu being responsible for the sharp rise in Covid cases in the State.

The increase in Corona cases is being witnessed not only in Karnataka but across the country. The Congress is taking out the padayatra in Karnataka while cases are piling up in Delhi and Maharashtra. Since the cases have been increasing everywhere, there is no connection with the on-going padayatra, he claimed at a press conference held in Kanakapura on Tuesday.

Before rejoining the padayatra after taking a break on the first day due to fatigue, the former CM slammed the state government for filing an FIR against 30 leaders including him for not following Covid restrictions and said “we are not scared. There will be no bigger fool than the BJP if they think that they can scare us by filing cases. We are going to question this in court. What rules have we broken?”

Going by this yardstick, Siddaramaiah wondered why government agencies have not filed a case against Kalaburagi Congress leader Subhas Guttedar for staging a stir with thousands of protesters? Why is there no case against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, MLA M.P. Renukacharya or MP Bhagavant Khuba, he asked.

A big fair was held in Tirthahalli, the Assemb ly constituency of Home Minister Araga Jnanendra while over 4,000 people attended the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected MLCs at Vidhana Soudha recently in which the CM too participated. Did functions not happen when the third wave of Corona hit the state? Did it start only after the Congress padayatra? This proves the government’s ulterior motive about the yatra, he added.

The former CM said he had to take a break after walking four km on Sunday due to mild fever. On the doctor’s advice, he took rest on Monday. He also targeted the BJP government saying they were trying to scuttle the padayatra to prevent people from becoming aware of the project. The BJP was cheating the people of Karnataka so that it could strengthen its roots in Tamil Nadu. he said adding that this should not be allowed at any cost.

“We are ready with one lakh face masks which are given to participants. All precautionary measures are being taken daily during the padayatra”, he added.

He also claimed a a government health officer was sent on Monday to take the swab of DK Shivakumar only with the intention of giving a false report that he had tested positive for Corona. Despite walking in the Sun, Shivakumar is still like a hard rock, he remarked.