Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday (June 8) said that the stampede that killed 11 people outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru shouldn’t have happened, and he “didn’t have any connection with the cricket stadium”.

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“This incident shouldn’t have happened, it happened at the Cricket stadium.

I don’t have any connection with the cricket stadium,” Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysuru.

Opposition demands CM’s resignation

The stampede occurred on June 4 in front of the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where a large number of people thronged to participate in the RCB team’s IPL victory celebrations.

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The Opposition is demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister over this issue.

He said, “It was an unfortunate incident, it shouldn’t have happened.

Such an incident never happened after I became the CM. Prima facie, it seems to have happened because of the officials’ fault, so we have taken action. Everyone is in pain, including me.”

Siddaramaiah said he attended the RCB team felicitation event in front of Vidhana Soudha at the invitation of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA ) Secretary and Treasurer.

Asked about the allegation that the then Bengaluru Police commissioner B Dayananda was made scapegoat, he said, the Commissioner alone has not been suspended, five officers have been suspended, and the intelligence chief has been changed.

“My political secretary K Govindaraj has been removed. We have taken a series of actions, not the police commissioner alone,” he added.

CM on shifting stadium

Later, in a post on his X (formerly Twitter), Siddaramaiah said the BJP and JD(S) were making politically motivated allegations against his government.

“The BJP and JDS are making politically motivated allegations in the stampede incident at the RCB celebrations. The government has taken action against the police officers concerned based on the prima facie information regarding the incident.

A judicial inquiry has been ordered as demanded by the BJP and JDS. Similarly, action has been taken against the police,” he wrote.

“The state BJP is now blaming the government after the incident, saying that RCB has made a dream of many years come true, and not allowing the procession in an open bus shows the inadequacy of the Home Minister. This shows the duplicity of the state BJP,” he added.

The Chief Minister also said that his government would consider shifting the cricket stadium. “The government will look into shifting the cricket stadium to another location. Such an unpleasant incident should not happen under any government. Personally, this incident has pained me and the government.”