Hubbali: In a ‘public auction’ of Karnataka Members of the Parliament held in Hubbali on Thursday, Finance Minister and Rajya Sabha Member Nirmala Sitharaman got the highest bid of Rs.5, while Bangalore South MP Tejaswi Surya remained unsold. MP from Koppal, Karadi Sanganna was, however, auctioned for a successful bid of Rs.1.
The auction was arranged by activist and founder of Kannala Chalavalu Vatal Paksha, Vatal Nagaraj, against the apathy of the elected representatives towards the flood-affected due to the heavy rains occurred early this month. Torrential rains lashed parts of Northern Karnataka in areas of Bellary, Belagavi, Bidar, Hubballi, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur, and Yadgir among others. A whopping Rs.1,000 crore loss was estimated to rural infrastructure, with almost 3 lakh families affected.
Apart from the two MP’s who were sold, the rest including Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, MPs G.M. Siddeshwar, Ananthkumar Hegde, Tejasvi Surya, and B.Y. Raghavendra, remained “unsold” as no bidders came forward to buy them.
Before the ‘auction’, Vatal Nagaraj said to the local reporters that the protest was aimed at reminding the Members of Parliament about their duties which they had forgotten. He said that the MPs from Karnataka had failed to address the flood situations and fetch requisite funds for relief from the Union government.
“Such has been the apathy of the Union government and the Prime Minister towards the plight of the people of North Karnataka that none of the top leaders from the Centre thought it was right to visit the flood-affected areas in the State,” he added.