Jubilant Congress workers set off fireworks on Thursday to celebrate the rise of DJ Halli corporator Sampath Raj to the post of Bengaluru mayor.
In response, the BJP leaders who had protested inside the BBMP Council and boycotted the election, picked up brooms and began sweeping up the mess as a sign of protest.
BJP corporators had walked out of the council hall shouting slogans against the Congress and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah while the mayoral election was underway on Thursday morning.
According to former Home Minister and BJP leader R Ashok, Congress functionaries standing outside the BBMP building began raising slogans against the BJP. Once it was officially announced that Sampath Raj had been elected as the mayor of the city, they set off fireworks and distributed sweets.
Following this, BJP corporators did the unexpected. The corporators, led by Leader of Opposition in BBMP Council, Padmanabha Reddy, rushed into their chambers and brought out brooms, to sweep up the mess created due to the fireworks.
“They mocked the BJP leaders by saying that we were carrying out Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachch Bharat mission,” R Ashok alleged.
The corporators also gave the new mayor a deadline of October 8, to fill up the 9,000-odd potholes in the city and announce a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to those affected by the city’s recent flooding.
“If they do not fix the potholes, we will conduct a protest and lock up the BBMP office,” R Ashok said.
On Thursday afternoon, a protest was held by the BJP near the Kempegowda statue at Hudson Circle, opposite the BBMP head office, ahead of the Mayoral election.
R Ashok, who led the protest, said, “Wake up CM Siddaramaiah. Wake up now when the city is drowning.”
The BJP leader also ridiculed former Mayor G Padmavathi, and claimed that her only achievement was to create more potholes in the city’s roads.
BJP MLA Suresh Kumar alleged that the Congress was taking the help of proxy voters to win the Mayoral elections.
“They are doing the same thing again. Candidates who are not from Bengaluru are coming in and voting. They did this once before,” he added.