Congress firefights after Surjewala’s presence at Deputy CM’s meeting with BDA, BBMP officials stokes row

BENGALURU: A day after a controversy arose over the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala at a meeting of officials from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) at a hotel, the Congress state leadership on Wednesday got into some serious firefighting to put a lid on the issue.

The state BJP tweeted a photograph of the meeting, wherein Surjewala is seen seated right next to Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and said, “The “secret meeting” held at Bangalore’s Shangri-La Hotel is just another way of ‘Gandhis!’ trying to control Karnataka. The family have sent their close aide Randeep Surjewala, who neither holds any position at BDA/BBMP nor in the government to decide on Karnataka’s matters. What is his capacity or authority to chair the meeting with the BBMP and BDA Commissioners/Officials? Is this where the ‘85% deals’ are being orchestrated by the #ATMSarkara to raise funds ahead of 2024 Elections?” with the hashtag #AnswerMaadiSiddu.

Surjewala’s presence had led to much speculation that the Congress high command was directly getting involved in the state administration and development issues concerning Bengaluru, especially after the party’s senior leadership appointed political strategist Sunil Kanugolu as the chief adviser to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “It was not an official meeting, he only spoke to the Bengaluru city MLAs to discuss about the BBMP election where the Deputy Chief Minister was also present. Surjewala cannot hold a meeting of officials. If the opposition wants, let them complain to the governor”.

Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara defended saying that Surjewala did not chair the meeting. “As far as I know, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had called for a meeting and Surjewala had arrived there. It was not an official meeting at the hotel. If Surjewala had participated in a meeting held at Vidhana Soudha, or the minister’s chambers or conference hall, it would have been wrong, but this was private meeting. There is no need to bring in the high command into this. Surjewala didn’t question the officials”, he added.

“Yes, the high command gives us instructions to give good administration. When Ghulam Nabi Azad was in charge of the state when S M Krishna was chief minister. He would call us and review the performance of ministers and departments in the interest of the party”, Parameshwara added.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath, however, refused to comment on the issue. “I cannot talk about the issue”, was all he said. When pressed further, he said, “It is true that me and the additional chief secretary were present. We were supposed to go for the inspection of the Hebbal flyover up to KR Puram at 11 am. We were waiting there to take them on the city rounds. We reached around 10.10 am and came down around 10.30 am and were waiting for the Deputy CM and others”.

On Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had denied that there was any BBMP meeting. From ShangriLa hotel, I wanted to go to Hebbal. Let them tweet whatever they want. The officers had come to take me to the BDA office. Apart from that, no meeting was held”.