Protest in Dharwad
BJP leaders said the hikes would burden people already struggling with rising essential commodity prices. Dharwad division convener Jayateertha Katti and district general secretary Shivu Menasinakai said poor and middle-class families would be worst affected. Dharwad/Hubballi/Karwar: BJP members of the Hubballi-Dharwad West assembly constituency staged a protest against the Congress-led state govt over the hike in milk prices and bus fares at Maharana Pratap Singh Circle near the Old Bus Stand in city. He alleged that prices tend to rise whenever the Congress comes to power and accused the govt of forgetting its responsibilities and being mired in corruption. Bellad also claimed the govt planned to increase stamp duty in the coming days, adding that it had failed to safeguard public interests. In Hubballi, BJP Yuva Morcha and BJP Central unit members held separate marches and burnt effigies while raising slogans against Congress govt. Yuva Morcha members marched from Shivaji Chowk to Ganesh Peth Circle and burnt an effigy of deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar . Hubballi-Dharwad East Yuva Morcha president Praveen Kubasad led the protest. BJP Central members marched from Channamma Circle to the bus stand.
Party leaders said protests would continue until the hikes were withdrawn. In Karwar, BJP workers led by MP Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri demonstrated at Subhash Circle against higher milk, curd and bus fares. Protesters marched towards the KSRTC bus stand and begged for alms, claiming govt decisions had strained ordinary citizens’ finances.