Bengaluru: The BJP's Karnataka unit slammed the Congress Legislature party leader Siddaramaiah on Monday for gobbling up biryani when the Badami Assembly constituency battled natural disasters.

The BJP took to Twitter to post pictures of Siddaramaiah purportedly having biryani and kebabs, among other items, along with KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, party legislators BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, MB Patil, KJ George, Krishna Byre Gowda. Monday also marked the birthday of the former chief minister who completed 71 years.

In its tweet, the BJP in Karnataka stated, "Twitter preacher Siddaramaiah has time to attend biryani party at Congress MLCs house, but he does not have time to visit flood affected Badami constituency. If eating biryani is over, make some effort to visit your constituency & listen to pleas of people who voted u (sic)."

Earlier, Siddaramaiah had cited cataract surgery and doctors' advice as reason for not visiting Badami in Bagalkot district that is currently affected by floods. He had deputed his son and MLA of Varuna constituency in Mysuru, Yathindra, to visit Badami and take stock of the situation.

Siddaramaiah had earlier hit out at Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa over the delay in Cabinet expansion and his ability to handle the flood situation on his own, without any ministers in his government.

Yediyurappa announced Rs 5 lakh compensation for the people who lost their houses in Karnataka Floods. As an emergency relief, he asked deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada S Sasikanth Senthil to release Rs 10,000 immediately to each of those families who lost their house in the flood.

The chief minister said, “Those families whose houses had been partially damaged would get Rs 1 lakh for repair work and those who had lost their houses would get Rs 5 lakh for the construction of new houses and Rs 5,000 per month for rent until construction was complete.” Around 275 houses had been damaged in Dakshina Kannada.