As Karnataka President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) BS Yeddyurappa set off the party’s ‘Jana Samparka Abhiyana’ campaign in Mysuru district on Tuesday, the focus of his campaign appears to be to reverse the damage caused by his actions while visiting Dalit families in Tumakuru district in May.
On Monday, Yeddyurappa tweeted a photograph of himself having lunch at a Dalit colony before addressing public rally in Chamarajanagar. This, nearly a month after he courted controversy for eating idlis bought from a hotel instead of the meal prepared at the house of Dalit family in Tumakuru,
The senior BJP leader was accused of practicing untouchability. A police complaint was filed by D Venkatesh from Mandya, alleging that Yeddyurappa’s refusal to eat the food cooked in a Dalit household amounted to caste discrimination.
The incident had taken place when Yeddyurappa and several other BJP leaders visited the house of a Dalit family in Gubbi taluk in Tumakuru district. A breakfast had reportedly been arranged at the house of a Dalit man, who had prepared pulao. However, Yeddyurappa ordered idli and vada from a hotel for himself.
His latest photograph that shows him eating a meal from a banana leaf in a Dalit colony appears to be an attempt at negating the flak he had received for the previous incident.
Had lunch at Sh.Heggadashettru's house at Dalit colony before addressing public rally continuing the Janasamparka Abhiyana. pic.twitter.com/nq1SIx7WDm
— B.S. Yeddyurappa (@BSYBJP) June 12, 2017
This time he has left no room for any doubt that he was eating in Dalit houses. Star of Mysore reports that the former CM said he was touring the State to hear the grievance of the people and lashed out at Siddharamaiah saying that he was having breakfast and lunch at Dalit homes in order to assess their living conditions and not for the sake of publicity.
Yeddyurappa reportedly visited the home of Dalit leader Narasimhamurthy's residence at Kurimandi kesare where he had breakfast. In his tweet he says that he had lunch at the home of Heggadashettru in a Dalit colony.
Yeddyurappa also paid tributes to Dr B R Ambedkar by garlanding his statue at FTS Circle on the Mysuru-Bengaluru Road.