Ballari | September 11, 2026
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ballari Chalo padayatra ended in Ballari on Thursday with a public rally at the Municipal College ground, where party leaders demanded a farm-loan waiver, the release of pending development funds and a white paper on the alleged misuse of SCSP-TSP money. The BJP also warned of intensified protests if its demands were not addressed.
The march was organised to protest the functioning of the Congress-led Karnataka government. At the concluding rally, BJP leaders called for development grants to be released for all 224 Assembly constituencies and sought immediate clearance of funds pending for the Backward Classes Department and various development boards.
BJP state unit president B.Y. Vijayendra said the state was facing a severe drought and claimed that farmers were unable to operate borewells because of power shortages. He demanded a farm-loan waiver and said that ₹2,000 crore in pending allocations for the Backward Classes Department and other development boards should be released immediately.
Vijayendra also alleged that North Karnataka had been neglected by the state government. Referring to the Navali reservoir project, he said the previous B.S. Yediyurappa government had allocated ₹14 crore for preparing its detailed project report, but alleged that the current government was not giving adequate attention to the project.
He further criticised the government’s statements on a possible ban on areca nut or gutka, saying such positions had created difficulties for areca-nut growers. The claims were made at the rally and were not accompanied in the report by a response from the state government.
Union minister Pralhad Joshi accused Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar of failing to undertake development work and alleged that the state lacked sufficient funds to implement its guarantee schemes effectively. He also said the schemes were not reaching beneficiaries as intended.
The BJP leaders used the rally to frame the march as a wider campaign over the concerns of farmers, labourers, disadvantaged communities, students and nomadic groups. Vijayendra said the party would continue organising protests and would not stop until it returned to power.
The rally’s demands now place the focus on the state government’s response on farm debt, pending departmental allocations, constituency-level development grants and the future of the Navali reservoir project. The BJP did not announce a specific date for its proposed intensified agitation.
