The 900-km padayatra of BSR Party leader and independent MLA B. Sriramulu, will culminate here on Sunday at the Freedom Park here with a rally of farmers, poor people and workers.
Speaking to mediapersons at Yelahanka on his entry to the city along with hundreds of supporters, the former Minister said that all of them would go to Palace Grounds on Saturday night where they would stay. The next morning, they would march up to Freedom Park along with cultural troupes from the north Karnataka region.
He said his next yatra would be on motorcycles covering coastal, Malnad and areas around Mysore district, following which he might announce changes in the name of his party and it would be formally launched. Mr. Sriramulu said that his party would field candidates from all the 224 Assembly constituencies in the next elections.
The former Minister urged the State government to announce a programme to remove the silt in the Tungabhdara reservoir, which had reduced the storage capacity drastically, within 10 days. Otherwise, his party would observe a two-day fast with one lakh farmers on the river bed of Tunga near Bellary.
Charging the Bharatiya Janata Party government with backstabbing the former Minister G. Janardhan Reddy, who has been jailed, Mr. Sriramulu said the Reddy brothers from Bellary district had helped it form the first government in South India.
During his 52 days of padayatra, the former Minister said that people in Gulbarga, Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Bellary, Davangere, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts had complained of severe shortage of drinking water. The BJP government had failed to implement social welfare measures, he alleged. However, he said that the D.V. Sadananda Gowda government, which was on ventilator would collapse due to its own weight.
Referring to the huge victory achieved by the YSR Congress headed by Jaganmohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, he said it showed that the popularity of the regional parties. Film actress Rakshita was present.
