Bengaluru: What was supposed to be a carnival atmosphere to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) maiden IPL title triumph turned into an evening of horror here on Wednesday.
As thousands gathered near the Chinnaswamy Stadium to greet Virat Kohli and the other heroes, a stampede-like situation led to at least 10 people losing their lives and left dozens injured.
The Rajat Patidar-led team, which beat Punjab Kings by 6 runs in the final at Ahmedabad on Tuesday night, flew in to Bengaluru this afternoon and travelled in the RCB team bus to the Vidhana Soudha, from where they moved to the packed-to-rafters Chinnaswamy Stadium for a felicitation of the champions.
The BJP accused the Congress-led Karnataka government of “criminal negligence,” alleging that there were no crowd control measures or basic arrangements in place for the event.
The saffron party attacked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar, saying they were busy “shooting reels” instead of ensuring safety of the fans.
Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra called it an “unplanned publicity stunt”, and demanded a judicial probe and accountability from the chief minister.
Amit Malviya, the party’s head of IT cell, said poor planning and crowd mismanagement led to the ‘avoidable tragedy’.
“Tragic stampede in Bengaluru. A celebration has turned into a nightmare. At an event organised by the Karnataka State Government to celebrate RCB’s IPL campaign, a stampede broke out due to poor planning and crowd mismanagement,” Malviya posted on X.
“This heartbreaking incident could have been avoided. The lack of basic administrative foresight and failure in crowd control by the state government has led to an irreparable loss. Accountability must be fixed. Lives were lost due to negligence, not chance,” Malviya added.
‘No need to give political colour’
Congress leader and senior BCCI official Rajiv Shukla said that the Bengaluru stampede should not be given a political colour.
“There is no need to give political colour to this incident. It can happen in any state ruled by any political party… There was a huge crowd, even the franchise didn’t imagine there would be such a massive crowd. We are checking what happened and what was the cause of the stampede,” said Shukla.
CM Siddaramaiah rushed to the Bowring Hospital where most of the injured people have been taken to for treatment.
‘Shortened programme, ended in 10 mins’
Deputy CM Shivakumar urged people to stay calm. “We shortened the programme… it ended in 10 minutes. Lakhs of fans came. We’re trying to normalise the situation,” he said.
Asked about casualties, DKS said, “Can’t confirm anything now… I do not want to disturb doctors who are taking care of the patients.”
The deputy CM said, “We had arranged more than 5,000 personnel. This is a young vibrant crowd, we can’t use lathi.”
