Bengaluru: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and a Congress MLC came to blows during a public meeting in Karnataka’s Bidar Monday, exchanging abuses and punches in a confrontation over alleged forest land encroachment.
Videos of the clash were circulated widely on social media.
The scuffle between BJP’s Siddu Patil and Congress’s Bhimrao Patil erupted during a district-led quarterly meeting of the Karnataka Development Authority (KDA) chaired by state Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre at the Zilla Panchayat Hall in Bidar, about 677 km from Bengaluru.
The meeting was adjourned after the clash.
“I did not even look at his face, it was him who addressed me in the singular and hurled abuses. When he confronts me while I am in my chair, should I not defend myself?” Siddu Patil told reporters later. He alleged that Bhimrao Patil had encroached on land and that he had only sought answers to his earlier questions on the issue.
Bhimrao Patil could not be reached for comment.
Neither of the two sides have filed a police complaint so far.
Monday’s incident triggered fresh recriminations between the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP, with both parties accusing each other of using violence to cover up mistakes.
On January 1, supporters of BJP MLA Gali Janardhana Reddy and Congress legislator Bharat Reddy clashed over the installation of a banner for the unveiling of a Valmiki statue in Ballari, a mineral-rich district about 320 km from Bengaluru. Around eight gunshots were fired in the altercation, which claimed one life.
Janardhana Reddy has since written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, requesting Z+ security and alleging that the Congress MLA is trying to assassinate him. Siddaramaiah has formed a committee to probe the violence and suspended the district Superintendent of Police.
This is not the first time politicians have clashed in Bidar. In 2023, BJP Minister Prabhu Chauhan claimed his party’s MP from the district, Bhagwant Khuba, had hired goons to kill him. Both leaders from Aurad in Bidar fuelled a growing divide within the BJP that contributed to the party losing power in that year’s elections. Khuba subsequently threatened a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Chauhan.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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