Slugfest over inauguration of Shivaji statue
Hebbalkar has also invited former chief minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar and many leaders of the party from Karnataka and Maharashtra for the ceremony. Yuvaraj Sambhajiraje, a 13th descendant of Shivaji Maharaj, actors Ritesh Deshmukh and Amol Kolle are the special invitees.
Ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections, a political slugfest ensued between the BJP and Congress over the inauguration of the 20-feet Shivaji statue installed at Rajhunsghad in Belagavi.
The unveiling of the Shivaji statue has become a prestige issue for Belagavi Rural Congress legislator Lakshmi Hebbalkar and Gokak BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi.
While Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled the statue on Thursday, All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge will unveil it on March 5.
Hebbalkar has also invited former chief minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar and many leaders of the party from Karnataka and Maharashtra for the ceremony. Yuvaraj Sambhajiraje, a 13th descendant of Shivaji Maharaj, actors Ritesh Deshmukh and Amol Kolle are the special invitees.
While Hebbalkar has claimed she got the funds sanctioned to complete the project, Jarkiholi said that the work was done by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government funds and not others, for which the Rajhunsghad and statue must be dedicated according to government protocol.
The Kannada and culture department and tourism ministry drafted an action plan to develop the Rajhansgad fort for ₹4.15 crore in 2006-07.
However, the plan was executed in 2021, where ₹3 crore was spent to develop the fort, including the construction of a new temple and a 20-foot heightened bronze statue of Shivaji Maharaj sitting on the throne. The entire project is in the final stage.
As Hebbalkar announced unveiling the statue on March 5, Jarkiholi, in a public meeting at Lakshmi’s constituency, Hirebagewadi, recently said that he would unveil the statue before her as the fund was spent by the BJP government and not Congress. He said he would not allow her to make it a Congress programme. The statue would be dedicated according to the protocol and not in a personal programme.
“Who is she to inaugurate the fort and unveil the statue as our government has released the funds for its development, and we have to do the same,” he said.
Jarkiholi, one of the most senior legislators of the state representing the Gokak constituency for the sixth consecutive term since 1999, said that Hebbalkar, the first-time legislator, lacks political knowledge as the works completed using government funds would be unveiled by it.
Hebbalkar said that though the project was ready and funds were reserved in 2006-07, the project was implemented after she became the legislator in 2018. “Though the BJP is governing, I took the effort in Vidhana Soudha and got the project re-approved and completed the work. Since it is in my constituency, I have all rights to take the decision about the work done and not others,” she said.
BJP district president Sanjay Patil, who represented the constituency for two terms before Lakshmi, said the credit for developing the fort and establishing the statue must be his as he had got approved the project by pressuring then tourism minister Gali Janardhan Reddy and the present minister CT Ravi who okayed and ordered the public works department to go ahead with the project.
At Congress’s second phase of the “Prajadwani” programme, held at Pant Balekundri village in Hebbalkar’s constituency on Wednesday, she alleged that when Patil was the legislator, he had met the then chief minister Siddaramaiah and begged him to release ₹50 lakh for the establishment of Shivaji statue, however, received no response.
Siddaramaiah, who was on the dais, replied that it was false as he never met Sanjay Patil. “I would have released not just ₹50 lakh but ₹1 crore to construct the Shivaji statue,” he added.