BJP MP Tejasvi Surya was briefly detained by police on Monday after he attempted to protest against the proposed Bengaluru Metro fare hike at a metro station while carrying an empty trunk.
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Surya reached the RV Road Metro station at around 6 am despite police denying permission for the protest. He was carrying an empty trunk and said he had purchased a ticket to travel from RV Road to National College station.
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Speaking to the media shortly before police escorted him away, Surya termed the action โshamefulโ and accused the state government of detaining people instead of providing better roads, infrastructure and amenities. โWe are asking for affordable public transport,โ he said.
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He claimed he was not staging a protest or sit-in demonstration, but was travelling with the trunk as a symbolic act highlighting the state governmentโs financial condition. Surya also held Chief Minister Siddaramaiah responsible for the proposed fare hike. The BJP MP had also protested against the proposed hike on Sunday.
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Meanwhile, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) put the proposed annual fare revision for Namma Metro on hold. The revised fares were earlier scheduled to take effect from February 9, 2026.
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โThe decision on the revised fare will be communicated after the Boardโs review,โ BMRCL said in a post on X late Sunday.
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BMRCL had proposed a zone-wise increase of Rs 1 to Rs 5 across 10 fare slabs under its annual automatic fare revision. The move drew strong resistance, as fares had already been hiked in February 2025, when some slabs saw increases of over 100 per cent, later capped at 71 per cent after protests.
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On Sunday, Karnataka Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao accused the BJP of politicising the issue. He said the metro is run jointly by the state and central governments and that the chief minister had already written to the Centre seeking a halt to the fare hike.
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โUnnecessarily, the BJP people want to make politics out of everything. The metro is run by the state and central government and it is a separate corporation. The chief minister has already written to the Government of India asking them not to increase the fare. Now, Surya is saying that they are not going to increase it, so let there be an official order, then we will see,โ Rao told reporters.
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His remarks came after Surya blamed the Congress government for the proposed hike, claiming the state was in a weak financial position and had earlier sought an upward revision of fares. He alleged that the state could no longer continue providing the financial support it had extended in the past.
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