‘Why was Madras changed to Chennai and Gulbarga to Kalaburagi?’ DK Shivakumar hits back at Kumaraswamy

VIJAYAPURA: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Friday lashed out at Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, questioning why the Minister came to Ramanagara district to do politics instead of his home district of Hassan.

Shivakumar criticised Kumaraswamy for suggesting he must have tipped off the Enforcement Directorate (ED) about Ranya Rao’s gold smuggling case details. “Kumaraswamy is mental. He has lost his mental balance”, the Deputy CM said, adding that lies were his other name.

Replying to a series of tweets from Kumaraswamy on the renaming of Ramanagara district, Shivakumar said, “Why did Kumaraswamy come to Ramanagara to do politics? Why did he not do politics in his home district of Hassan? Why hasn’t he removed the initials in his name, which refer to his father’s name and his village’s name?”

“We are from Bengaluru district. Names of places have significance. Why was Madras changed to Chennai and Gulbarga to Kalaburagi? The people of the district, too, have their aspirations. Is it bothering anyone?” he added.

When asked about the allegations that renaming of Ramanagara was done for real estate gains, the Deputy CM responded while saying that the Karnataka government wants the farmers’ land to have more financial value so that investors could come and develop the region.

“Yes, we want the values of our farmers’ land to go up. We want our people to get more jobs. We want investors to come and develop this place; that is our dream,” Shivakumar said. “The parliamentary constituency was earlier called Kanakapura; why was it changed to Bengaluru Rural? We are not changing the name Ramanagara; it will continue to be the district headquarters. We are only changing the name of the district,” he explained.

ರಾಮನಗರವನ್ನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಎಂದು ಮಾಡಿದಾಕ್ಷಣ ರಸ್ತೆಗಳಿಗೆ, ಮನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಚಿನ್ನದ ತಗಡು ಹೊಡೆಸುತ್ತೀರಾ ?

ಅಂದು 2007ರಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಮನಗರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ ಘೋಷಿಸಿದಾಗ ಯಾಕೆ ವಿರೋಧ ಮಾಡಲಿಲ್ಲ ? ಈಗ ದುರುದ್ದೇಶದಿಂದ ಮರುನಾಮಕರಣ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೀರಿ.

– ಶ್ರೀ @hd_kumaraswamy, ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಬೃಹತ್‌ ಕೈಗಾರಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಉಕ್ಕು ಸಚಿವರು pic.twitter.com/aGfEjXHfwY

— Janata Dal Secular (@JanataDal_S) May 23, 2025

This comes after Kumaraswamy on Friday mocked the Karnataka government over the recent raids by the ED on the educational institutions linked to G Parameshwara and stated that the state Home Minister is facing problems due to his Congress friends only.

Addressing the media, Kumaraswamy stated that Congress ministers and leaders are unnecessarily attacking the Central government over the ED’s action. “Why is our Karnataka HM in trouble? He is facing these problems due to his friends in Congress only. Unnecessarily, Congress ministers and leaders are attacking the Central Government,” he said. (ANI)