Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has received some inadvertent and unexpected support from the Opposition over demolition of 150 shanties in Bengaluru, providing the 77-year-old a reprieve after sharp criticism from the Congress high command.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition party in Karnataka, has inadvertently shielded Siddaramaiah from his own party’s anger, intensifying leadership tussles within the Karnataka Congress.
“Who is (K. C.) Venugopal to interfere in the affairs of Karnataka? He may be an MP or from your party. But how can he interfere here?” Chalavadhi Narayaswamy, the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Upper House, told reporters Monday.
Narayanaswamy also questioned the motives behind Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s targeting of the Karnataka government over the demolition of shanties in Bengaluru’s Kogilu locality.
“When there is a functioning government here, what is the work of another (Kerala) here?” he asked.
On 20 December, the Bengaluru district authorities demolished more than 150 ‘illegal’ homes in Fakir Colony and Waseem Layout, stating that the site was a garbage dumping yard.
Soon after, Vijayan posted on X that the “uprooting of Muslim families who have lived there for years exposes the brutal normalisation of ‘bulldozer raj’ and that the Sangh Parivar’s anti-minority politics is now being executed under a Congress government in Karnataka.”
Since the demolition in Bengaluru, the Karnataka Congress has come under fire from various quarters, including its own high command, which has come down hard on the ‘bulldozer justice’ which has been popularised by CM Yogi Adityanath in UP, where extra-judicial methods were used to demolish homes of those the administration believed were behind riots and other ‘illegal activities’.
“Kerala CM is doing politics… I am requesting him to stay away as this is a local issue. We have to safeguard in the interest of a health hazard. We don’t want illegal people to occupy government property,” D. K. Shivakumar, Karnataka’s Deputy CM told reporters Monday. He also visited the demolition site in Bengaluru.
The BJP has hit out at both the Congress party and the Kerala government. With assembly elections round the corner in Kerala, the Congress is trying to manage expectations without denting its prospects in the poll-bound state. But in the process, it has set off a chain reaction.
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‘Bulldozer justice’
Interestingly, the first allegation of ‘bulldozer justice’ against the Karnataka Congress came from senior Congress leader, P. Chidambaram 12 December.
Reacting to a statement by Karnataka home minister G. Parameshwara that the homes of drug dealers will be demolished using bulldozers, Chidambaram said that he was “alarmed” by the comments.
“The SC has declared the law: Demolishing homes without due process of law is illegal and will violate the fundamental and human rights of other members of the family. Besides, the Congress Party’s view is that ‘bulldozer justice’ as practised in U.P. is wrong, illegal and unjust. Let not a Congress-governed state like Karnataka go down the illegal path of U.P…,” he said.
I am alarmed by the reported statement of Karnataka’s Home Minister that bulldozers may be used to demolish the homes of drug peddlers
I hope the report is wrong
The SC has declared the law: demolishing homes without due process of law is illegal and will violate the…
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) December 12, 2025
Days later, the Karnataka government carried out the Kogilu demolition in Bengaluru that fuelled the debate.
At first, the BJP did not react since most of the residents of the shanties were from the minority community.
But the post by Congress national general secretary (organisation) K. C.Venugopal triggered a political row that now extends from the national capital to the two southern states.
In his post, Venugopal, who is from Kerala, said that the high command had expressed “serious concern that such actions should have been undertaken with far greater caution, sensitivity, and compassion” and that efforts were underway to rehabilitate those impacted in Bengaluru.
Spoke to Karnataka CM @siddaramaiah and DCM @DKShivakumar regarding the demolition of unauthorised constructions in Kogilu village, Bengaluru.
Conveyed the AICC’s serious concern that such actions should have been undertaken with far greater caution, sensitivity, and…
— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) December 27, 2025
At first, Shivakumar hit back at Vijayan, stating it had “nothing to do with minorities”.
Siddaramaiah too mirrored these sentiments, stating that despite issuing notices, the residents had failed to comply, justifying the Bengaluru demolition drive.
“There is a fundamental difference between ‘bulldozer justice’ and the lawful removal of illegal encroachments. The criticism being made by Pinarayi Vijayan is politically motivated and reflects a lack of understanding of the factual situation…,” he said.
Several people had illegally erected makeshift shelters at the waste-disposal site in the Kogilu Layout near Yelahanka in Bengaluru. It is not a place suitable for human habitation. Despite issuing notices on multiple occasions directing the families to relocate, the residents… https://t.co/dsWrbevkEB
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) December 27, 2025
Narayanaswamy said Vijayan’s statement was a “political gimmick” to curry favour in the poll-bound state, but later hardened his stance over Shivakumar’s statements that rehabilitation would be provided to those that lost their homes.
“First ascertain who they are, where they are from and then rehabilitate them. Why is the Karnataka government bending backwards to help people from other states, Bangladeshis who are staying there illegally,” Narayanaswamy said.
In February last year, the Siddaramaiah government had offered Rs 15 lakhs to the family of 47-year-old Ajeesh Joseph Panachiyil who was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Kerala’s Wayanad. The orders came after the then Member of Parliament from Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi, allegedly asked Karnataka to do so. The Karnataka government complied, stating that it was an “elephant from Karnataka” that had trampled Ajeesh.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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