Even as the police drew no conclusions on the motive behind the blast near the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters here, political parties were quick to draw inferences in line with their electoral aspirations.
The ruling BJP claimed that the blast was “targeted” at it in the run-up to the elections. It issued a communiqué that the mid-morning timing of the blast was intended to harm its top leaders. Interestingly, none of its bigwigs were present at the time, as most were busy either filing their nominations or accompanying other candidates filing theirs.
A senior BJP leader told The Hindu the area around the party office was cordoned off because of frequent visits by top leaders with Z category security. “This may have prevented the [perpetrators] from planting the bomb in the party office premises,” he said.
BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar said the Union government should set up a National Security Guard (NSG) hub in Bangalore. “After the Mumbai terror attack [in 2008], the Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh] had promised an NSG hub in Bangalore,” he added.
Congress leader Siddaramaiah described the bomb blast as “an intelligence failure” on the part of the State government. In Bangalore, Congress MP H. Vishwanath said he “smelled the hand of the sangh parivar.” He said the alleged involvement of the sangh parivar in the Malegaon blasts, Amritsar train incident and hoisting of the Pakistani flag at Bagalkot in Karnataka provided ground for such a suspicion.
Launching a counter attack, Law Minister S. Suresh Kumar accused the Congress of trying to politicise a sensitive issue. “People can see through the statements of Congress leaders and their insensitivity to human sufferings,” he said and predicted that such callousness would affect its poll fortunes.
Janata Dal (Secular) accused both BJP and Congress of taking “political advantage” of the blast and its State president H.D. Kumaraswamy demanded a thorough probe. “Safety and security of the people should be the priority of the government,” he said. “It is reported that the government had information about a possible terror act. If it is a fact, then it is intelligence failure.”
