Describing the ‘Ballari Chalo’ padayatra of the BJP that began on Tuesday as a mere “political ploy” to divert public attention from its own internal differences, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has said that the Congress would counter the BJP in its own style.

“Let them take out 100 such padayatras. We will counter them,” the Chief Minister told presspersons here.

Maintaining that the Congress had more experience in taking out padayatras, he remarked, “We have taken out several padayatras earlier including the Ballari, Mekedatu, Krishna water issue, Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir yatras. All our yatras were intended at protecting the interests of the State and the country unlike the BJP’s ongoing yatra.”

Pointing out that the BJP had disrupted the just concluded legislature session by resorting to protest demanding Mr. B. Nagendra’s resignation from the ministry, Mr. Shivakumar said Nagendra had quit though he had not involved in any irregularities. “I will reply on this at an appropriate place,” he said.

The BJP had earlier announced that it would take out a padayatra from Raichur to Ballari in support of various issues including the demand for resignation of Nagendra. However, the Opposition party decided to still go ahead with the padayatra plans even after Nagendra quit the ministry, by maintaining that the padayatra was not focussed only on Nagendra issue and that it intended to create public awareness against various alleged irregularities as well as alleged failures of the government.

However, in political circles, the BJP’s padayatra is being seen as an effort to regain its political hold in Ballary, which is the home district of Nagendra, by using the episode of him being chargesheeted in the case of alleged embezzlement of funds meant for the welfare of ST communities. The BJP’s campaign is also being seen as an effort to woo voters from the Valmiki community as it passes through the areas that have dominant presence of members of this ST community.

The chief minister’s statement that the Congress would respond to the padayatra in the BJP’s style itself is being interpreted as either the ruling party too planning a similar campaign or politically countering the BJP’s efforts in Ballari and surrounding areas to woo Valmiki community.