"State govt never cared about prior preparations, were more interested in publicity": Karnataka BJP Chief on Bengaluru stampede

Jun 04, 2025

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 4 : BJP Karnataka President BY Vijayendra on Wednesday slammed the Karnataka government for the stampede during the RCB victory celebration at Chinnaswamy Stadium, and said that the incident left over 11 people dead and several others critically injured.
He said the event was poorly planned, lacked police and ambulance support, and accused the government of focusing more on publicity than safety.
He demanded that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah order a judicial inquiry into the incident and take full responsibility.
Speaking to ANI, Vijayendra said, "The state government should take full responsibility for this tragedy. When the whole country and Karnataka were celebrating RCB's victory, the state government's haste to hold a victory rally without any prior preparations led to this tragedy. The state government never cared about prior preparations. They were more interested in publicity. This resulted in the death of more than 11 people. Some people are in the ICU. I spoke to some victims, and there was no police inside, no ambulance facility. The CM should send the matter for judicial investigation."
The Karnataka BJP President also visited Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital to meet people who were injured in the stampede in Bengaluru.
Karnataka Legislative Council Leader of Opposition and BJP MLC Chalavadi Narayanaswamy also blamed the state government for the stampede, calling it a clear case of security failure.

He said the government failed to anticipate the crowd size and did not take necessary precautions, leading to the tragedy.
Chalavadi Narayanaswamy said, "This tragedy happened because of the government. They had no idea about how many people would come, what precautions would have to be taken. This is a security failure"
The tragic event has now cast a shadow over RCB's much-celebrated IPL win, where they defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS), ending RCB's long wait for a maiden title as they won the match by six runs at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.