As the march reached Mandya city, police resorted to mild lathi charge to disperse the crowd as some of the protesters allegedly tried to target a flex with the image of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other Congress leaders, official sources said.A large contingent of police force has been deployed as a precautionary measure, as people of Keragodu and surrounding villages, along with BJP, JD(S) and Bajrang Dal workers and activists from other organisations continued to protest the removal of the flag and demanded that it be hoisted once again.Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday accused the opposition BJP and JD(S) of trying to instigate people on the issue of removal of the flag, with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections.Clarifying that the authorities had to intervene as the permission was taken to hoist the national and Kannada flag only, he also hit back at the BJP for calling him “anti-Hindu”, and said, he is a Hindu, who loves people from all religions.On Leader of Opposition R Ashoka (BJP) and state JD(S) chief H D Kumaraswamy joining the protest, Siddaramaiah said they are engaged in instigating people.”Why are they protesting? Why are they instigating the people? What for? As elections are coming, they are doing all these things.See, we have no objection, if they (those who hoisted saffron flag) had abided by the conditions under which permission was granted by Panchayat, why would the district administration have interfered?” he added.
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