Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah and other Congress MLAs on Monday staged a protest outside the Karnataka Assembly in Belagavi against the installation of a portrait of Veer Damodar Savarkar in the Assembly hall.
Karnataka Congress Chief DK Shivakumar alleged that the BJP wanted the assembly proceedings to be disrupted and it is because of this that they had installed a portrait of VD Savarkar in the Assembly hall. "They want that our assembly proceedings should not take place. They want it disrupted. They have brought this photo because we are going to raise a lot of corruption issues against them. They don't have any development agenda," Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar said. LoP Siddaramaiah also wrote to the Speaker to install portraits of other personalities like Basavanna, Valmiki, Kanaka Dasa, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, B R Ambedkar and many others inside the assembly.
The Congress leaders were also seen carrying pictures of other freedom fighters signifying that those pictures should be hung in the assembly. The 10-day Winter Session that starts on Monday at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha is likely to see a showdown between the BJP and Congress over Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's legacy.
The government has placed six pictures of significant personalities in the Assembly Hall, one of which is of Savarkar.
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