HD Kumaraswamy threatens fast unto death if Ramanagara is renamed, accepts DK Shivakumar's challenge for open debate

As the controversy over Karnataka's Ramanagara raged on, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday said he will go on a fast until death if the proposal to rename the district as “Bengaluru South” is accepted. Incumbent deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar had on Wednesday said the entire Ramanagara district will be renamed “Bengaluru South”. He had spurred a row earlier by stating that his assembly segment, Kanakapura, will be integrated into Bengaluru's city limits.

Kumaraswamy in this regard told reporters that he has emotional relationship with the district and took on the DCM's challenge for an open debate on the issue, according to news agency PTI.

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“I will take it as a challenge, I have an emotional relationship with Ramanagara, I don't have any business relationship with the district. If Ramanagara district's name is changed, I am ready to risk my life and sit on fast until death, despite my ill health. I have a dream about that district, so I too have a challenge for the sake of that dream, let's see. Till the last moment I will fight to protect the pride of that district,” Kumaraswamy told media.

Shivakumar had proposed a district called Bengaluru South, comprising of Channapatna, Ramanagara, Kanakapura, Magadi and Harohalli as its five taluks, with Ramanagara as the district headquarters. He reportedly proposed this in hopes to make an impact on smaller nearby towns via 'Brand Bengaluru'.

READ | DK Shivakumar fuels row over Kanakapura, says entire Ramanagara district may be renamed ‘Bengaluru South’

"The Deputy Chief Minister has thrown a challenge at me stating that he is ready for a debate on any channel with high TRP. I accept it, I will not run away, because the materials that I have are not the ones which make me run away," Kumaraswamy said, as quoted by the agency.

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In response, DCM Shivakumar said, “Fix the debate either in the assembly or any of the news channels. Any time after three days, after November 1...what I have done, what he has done, let's discuss openly, let's not fire the bullet in the air. Fix the debate.”

The JDS second-in-command and current state party chief also attacked the Congress stalwart by saying his proposal to rename Ramanagara as “Bengaluru South” is a move to regularise his “illegal” assets.

(With PTI inputs)