Police in Bengaluru are examining a viral video following claims that Congress supporters shouted “Pakistan zindabad” inside the Karnataka assembly to celebrate the win of a party candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections.
The ruling Congress party, however, rejected the charge. Its officials maintained that supporters were cheering for Syed Naseer Hussain, one of the three victorious Congress candidates in the southern state on Tuesday, and were shouting “Naseer saab zindabad”. A senior police source, too, said the slogan prima facie sounded like “Naseer saab zindabad”.
“We have obtained the video and analysing it,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda told News18.
The alleged incident took place soon after a media conference addressed by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly R Ashoka, in a post on X, said “Shameless @INCKarnataka workers shouted Pakistan Zindabad slogans in the Karnataka Assembly to celebrate Congress candidate Naseer Hussain’s victory in the Rajya Sabha election.”
“This is a direct fallout of CM @siddaramaiah and DCM @DKShivakumar’s dangerous game of appeasement politics which has emboldened anti-national elements and tukde tukde gang,” Ashoka added.
BJP leader Amit Malviya also slammed the alleged sloganeering and took to X saying “Pakistan Zindabad slogans raised after Congress’s Naseer Hussein, political secretary of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, won Rajya Sabha election from Karnataka. Congress’s obsession with Pakistan is dangerous. It is taking India towards balkanisation. We can’t afford it.”
RAJYA SABHA ELECTION RESULTS IN KARNATAKA
The ruling Congress in the state won three seats in the Rajya Sabha elections, which were marred by cross-voting in a setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ajay Maken, GC Chandrasekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain from the Congress and Narayansa K Bhandage of the saffron party got elected to the Upper House on Tuesday.
A total of five candidates, including JD(S)’s D Kupendra Reddy, were in the run for the four seats.
Maken, Hussain and Bhandage got 4,700 votes each and Chandrashekhar got 4,500 votes. With 3,600 votes on the other hand, Reddy could not make the cut.
Hussain, after his win, told reporters “This was an expected victory. We had enough votes to win all three seats. We got more votes for these three seats. This is an important victory ahead of Lok Sabha. It is a privilege for me to be in the Upper House and represent Congress party and Karnataka for the second consecutive time…”
Notably, BJP’s MLA ST Somashekhar voted for Maken, while another party legislator A Shivaram Hebbar abstained.
The saffron party said that it will explore legal avenues for taking action against them and lodging complaint with the Speaker UT Khader seeking their disqualification from the assembly.
