Bengaluru: Despite B Nagendra tendering his resignation as a minister, opposition BJP has decided to go ahead with its scheduled 10-day march from Raichur to Ballari beginning Sep 1.The saffron party had earlier announced that its padayatra was not only against Nagendra over allegations of the Rs 89 crore scam in the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation in 2024, but also against the Congress govt’s failures.As decided earlier, the padayatra will begin at Lingasugur on Sep 1 and conclude in Ballari on Sep 10, covering nine assembly constituencies. Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and HD Kumaraswamy will also attend the march. It will pass through Maski, Sindhanur, Hanchanal Camp, Kanakagiri, Gangavathi, Kampli, Sandur and Ballari Rural before culminating in Ballari city.Former minister B Sriramulu credited BJP and JD(S) legislators’ protests in the assembly with forcing Nagendra’s resignation, saying they ensured that the minister resigned within about 25 days of being inducted into the cabinet. He also rejected Nagendra’s contention that the opposition was targeting him because he was from the tribal community, questioning why the minister had resigned earlier in 2024 if there was no wrongdoing.Opposition leader R Ashoka said the minister stepped down only after the opposition produced documentary evidence in the alleged scam.Kumaraswamy accused the Congress govt of getting Nagendra to resign to avoid embarrassment to the party.However, KPCC president BK Hariprasad said Nagendra resigned taking “moral responsibility” in public life, but this was “neither a victory for BJP nor due to the opposition’s struggle.” He alleged that it reflected a “political conspiracy” against the tribal MLA.Hariprasad said BJP functionaries celebrating that “one wicket has fallen” should remember that politics is “not an IPL match”. “The BJP office is not a court, and BJP functionaries are not judges,” he said. He added that Nagendra was not named in the SIT chargesheet and vowed that Congress would not abandon the four-time MLA.
