NEW DELHI: Karnataka chief ministerSiddaramaiah on Wednesday while saying he did not “want to defend” the Bengaluru stampede that claimed 11 lives, also said “many stampedes have occurred”. As the chief minister said his “government will not do politics on the incident”, he also name-dropped Kumbh Mela at the press conference. “I don’t want to defend this incident. Our government will not do politics on this. I have ordered a magisterial inquiry and given 15 days. People even broke the gates of the stadium. There was a stampede. No one expected such a huge crowd. The stadium has a capacity of only 35,000 people, but 2-3 lakh people came,” CM Siddaramaiah said.However, while responding to questions about BJP’s charges of “gross negligence”, he added, “Such incidents happened in many places; I am not going to defend it by comparing them and saying that it happened here and there … 50-60 people died in Kumbh Mela. I did not criticise. If Congress criticises, then that is a different matter. Did I or the Karnataka government criticise?” Meanwhile, the BJP came down heavily on the Congress-led government holding CM Siddaramaiah and home minister G Parameshwara accountable for the deaths.Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra accused the state government of exerting pressure on the police and organising the event without proper planning or adequate security arrangements. “Is it not the state government’s responsibility to be prepared? Were they not aware that lakhs of people would turn up?” he asked.The stampede near Chinnaswamy Stadium claimed 11 lives and left 33 injured as thousands of fans gathered to celebrate RCB’s historic IPL win.Union minister Pralhad Joshi also held the state government squarely responsible. “It’s heartbreaking to see such loss due to poor planning and crowd mismanagement,” the Dharwad MP posted on X.Joshi said the tragedy could have been avoided with proper coordination and emergency preparedness. “Celebrations are one thing, but the government acted in haste without involving emergency services. Accountability must be fixed,” he said.
