The massive stampede at Bengaluru's Chinnaswamy stadium that cost 11 lives has sparked a political row, with the BJP accusing Karnataka's Congress government of mismanagement.
Criticising the arrangements in a post on X, Union minister Pralhad Joshi said, "It is heartbreaking to see such loss because of poor planning and crowd mismanagement".
The state government in Karnataka has "clearly failed in its responsibility," he said.
The tragedy, the minister said, was avoidable.
"Celebrations is one thing, but the State government without proper planning, without taking emergency services into confidence, took this urgent and unfortunate decision... The Government is responsible for this and accountability needs to be fixed," he added.
Eleven people died as frenzied celebrations started at the stadium when RCB won the IPL after 18 years. Altogether, 27 people were admitted to the hospital. The stampede had started during the felicitation of the team and visuals from the spot showed many to be injured.
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has already apologised for overcrowding at the venue.
"We had arranged more than 5,000 personnel," he said, pointing out that "Lakhs of people came".
The government, he added, had even shortened the felicitation programme.
"The program ended within 10 minutes. We are trying to make everything normal... This is a young vibrant crowd, we can't use lathi," he added.
