Veteran BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa, on Sunday, urged Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to reconsider his decision to name the under-construction Shivamogga airport after him.
A few days ago, Bommai had announced that the state cabinet decided to name the under-construction airport after Yediyurappa. "We will send it (proposal) to the civil aviation ministry, government of India. Once approved, we will issue an order naming the airport before it is commissioned," the CM had said.
Shivamogga is the political bastion of Yediyurappa; he is the MLA from Shikaripura assembly segment in the district, while his elder son B.Y. Raghavendra is MP from Shivamogga parliamentary constituency.
However, in a letter to Bommai, the former Karnataka chief minister suggested that the government names the airport after someone who has worked for the development of the nation and state and has a "historic name."
The Shivamogga airport will have the second longest runway in Karnataka after Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.
Bommai had pointed out that when Yediyurappa was the chief minister, he conceptualised Shivamogga airport in 2007-08, and it was approved in 2008.
—With PTI inputs
