Mangaluru : The Dakshina Kannada district administration has dropped from the list of invitees for the Tipu Jayanti on November 10 the names of MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and MLC Ganesh Karnik. The two were among the elected representatives from the Bharatiya Janata Party who had asked the State government not to include their names in the invitation for Tipu Jayanti citing their ideological difference with the ruling Congress.

Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil S. told that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday passed orders directing all Deputy Commissioners to drop names of those elected representatives who have expressed orally and in writing against being invited to the event. “Accordingly, we have not included the names of the MP and the MLC,” he said.

Meanwhile, addressing reporters here on Wednesday, Food and Civil Supplies Minister U.T. Khader said that the State government cannot be faulted for references of reported oppression by Tipu Sultan in the book, “Mangaluru Darshana”, brought out by the Mangaluru Urban Development Authority last year.

“You cannot link references to alleged oppression by Tipu Sultan (in the article in the book) with th State government’s Tipu Jayanti,” he said and added that the writer has recounted tales of what he has heard. He decried groups that are trying to link Tipu Sultan with a particular community.

Mr. Khader said that the Congress was not unduly worried about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Parivartana Yatra, which entered Gundia in Dakshina Kannada on Wednesday. “Considering the (poor) response to the start of the programme, there is no need for us to worry about it,” he said.