A political conflict has erupted in Karnataka over the condition of roads, particularly in Bengaluru. The BJP has initiated a state-wide 'road roko' protest across all 224 constituencies to demand better infrastructure. In Bengaluru, party members began filling potholes themselves, with the Yelahanka MLA taking action early in the morning fearing arrest. The ruling Congress party has retaliated, with Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivkumar stating the BJP is conspiring to tarnish the city's image and that the potholes are a legacy of the previous BJP government. Amid the blame game, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has given officials a one-month deadline for repairs. A BJP representative stated the party is undertaking a "positive protest by... filling wherever possible to fill the potholes, to send a message to the Congress government how inefficient it has been."
00:00state of Karnataka where there's a big pothole protest today across the state.
00:04BJP begins the road roco protest in the city of Bengaluru.
00:08Fearing arrest, BJP has now started filling potholes in Bengaluru.
00:12The Yalahanka BJP MLA has in fact filled potholes even before the conversation took place,
00:17even before the stir took place.
00:19Those are the images that you are seeing on your screens at the moment.
00:22BJP is all set to begin the road roco protest in the city of Bengaluru.
00:26My colleague Nagarjun Dwarkhanath is joining me on the story.
00:30Nagarjun, we are now seeing it's a tit for tat that is now playing out.
00:34The Congress is pointing fingers at the BJP and saying that those potholes are the legacy of the BJP.
00:39BJP pointing fingers and saying that the Congress government has done nothing for the state of Karnataka so far.
00:46And that's true. In fact, both the parties are blaming each other for the infrastructure collapse within the Bangalore city.
00:51Today, BJP has taken up road roco and pothole filling protest across 224 constituencies in Karnataka.
00:58And now fearing arrest, Yalahanka BJP MLA has already filled potholes in his own constituency in Yalahanka,
01:03blaming the Congress government of this collapsing infrastructure within Bangalore city.
01:07Yalahanka is one of the largest assembly constituencies within Bangalore city.
01:11And now the BJP MLA has filled the potholes early in the morning fearing arrests because the intelligence department has been collecting data on where exactly are the BJP filling potholes from this morning.
01:21But now fearing arrests, the BJP MLAs have already come onto the road and started filling potholes themselves.
01:27In the visuals, you can see Yalahanka BJP workers along with the MLA took bags of sands and filled up the potholes by 6.30 is what we are told.
01:35And such protest will happen across Karnataka in every assembly constituency.
01:40The deputy chief minister has blamed the BJP saying if they were fined two years back, the roads would not be in this condition today.
01:47And said that the prime minister's residence in front of his residence also, there are potholes.
01:52It's a systematic failure.
01:53But now the Congress government has woken up and filling thousands of potholes for cooperation is what the deputy chief minister said.
01:59Right, Nagarjun, please stay on with me. Let's now break it down for our viewers what exactly is happening in the state of Karnataka.
02:07It's potholes that have completely swallowed Bengaluru's roads.
02:11And politics also has now started to explode.
02:13It's the chief minister, Siddharamaya.
02:15He's given out a promise that there will be spare, there will be very swift repairs.
02:19In fact, has also handed out one month deadline.
02:22The BJP at the moment is smelling political mileage in this controversy.
02:26They have now announced a statewide road-roko conversation.
02:30With this controversy, the BJP is planning to block the roads in the city of Bengaluru and across the state as a part of the protest demanding better infrastructure.
02:39In fact, BJP MLAs have declared that if the government will not be filling the potholes, then it's the opposition that is all set to pave the way.
02:47Congress is not taking this lying down.
02:49Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shiv Kumar is hitting back hard.
02:52He's saying that this is all but just a conspiracy.
02:55Also quipped that these roads would have been better had the BJP done the job properly because it was the BJP government before the Congress came to power.
03:03And then we are also seeing how constituency after constituency, we are now seeing how they are looking less like the tech hub and more like a war zone.
03:11Congress has now started to highlight that there is a report card which now is saying that crores have been spent on metro lines, flyovers, lakes and drains.
03:19But the reality on the ground, floods, foaming lakes, potholes and the daily gridlock calling an audit.
03:26They are now saying that close to 8,000 crore rupees.
03:29Now that's a black hole of a kind in funds.
03:31And what happened to those 8,000 crore rupees?
03:33Now that's about us, the group I've just kind of called all the countries.
03:54There is a lot of news reports that the Prime Minister is in the road, so it's a lot of news reports.
04:01So, I have 7 IT companies.
04:07This is a lot of news reports.
04:12So, this is a lot of news reports.
04:17It is our duty.
04:19It is our duty.
04:21It is our duty.
04:23It is our duty.
04:25It is our duty.
04:27It is our duty.
04:29It is our duty.
04:31It is our duty.
04:33It is our duty.
04:37The negligence, what has been
04:39neglected, the roads have been neglected by the
04:41Congress government across the state
04:43and especially in the city of Bengaluru
04:45and threatening the citizens.
04:47Citizens have been threatened.
04:49So we are trying to make it a very positive
04:51protest
04:53by filling all the pot holes.
04:55Filling wherever possible to fill
04:57the pot holes, to send a message to the
04:59Congress government, how inefficient
05:01it has been, how it is not discharging
05:03its duty. So we are
05:05going for a
05:07pot hole filling program tomorrow in the city of
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