After BJP General Secretary CT Ravi demanded renaming Indira Canteens across Karnataka to 'Annapoorneshwari Canteen', former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Monday termed it as "vengeance" politics.
Speaking to the media Siddaramaiah said, "Demanding a change in the name of Indira Canteen is nothing but vengeance politics. There are so many programmes (named) after the leadership of BJP. Did we demand to change those names?"
"There is Deen Dayal Upadhyaya flyover, Atal Bihari Vajpayee program, stadium named after Modi in Ahmedabad, Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi. Should we demand to change those names? Khel Ratna had Rajiv Gandhi's name. Why did they want to change it? Prime Minister should answer," he added.
Earlier, CT Ravi had urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to change the name of the canteens at the earliest stating that it is a reminder of "dark days of emergency."
"Request Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to rename Indira Canteens across Karnataka as 'Annapoorneshwari Canteen' at the earliest. Don't see any reason why Kannadigas should be reminded of the dark days of Emergency while they are having food," said the BJP general secretary in a tweet.
Indira canteens were started by the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka in 2017 with the aim to provide meals to the economically disadvantaged sections of society at a subsidised price.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor