After 11 fans died last year in a stampede during Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) IPL title win celebrations, the franchise has decided against holding a victory parade in the city.
On Sunday night (May 31) in Ahmedabad, RCB won their second consecutive IPL title, beating Gujarat Titans (GT) by five wickets in IPL 2026 final.
CM oath-taking ceremony
The RCB took such a decision also keeping in mind the swearing-in ceremony of newly-appointed Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
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The function is scheduled to be held at Lok Bhavan at 4:10 pm and the Governor’s residence is in close proximity to RCB’s home ground M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The political function is expected to attract a massive crowd from across the state.
The ceremony, which is to be attended by several dignitaries, will also require considerable deployment of police personnel, and it will be tough for the state police department to spare men for another high-voltage function.
In that context, the RCB management felt that it was better to adhere to the police notification, prohibiting public celebrations on city streets.
On June 4, 2025, 11 fans were killed near Chinnaswamy Stadium as RCB hastily arranged a victory parade following their maiden title win, and clearly no one wanted a repeat of that this year.
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That tragic chain of events had invoked huge public outrage and the intervention of state government and judicial powers, including the High Court.
Shivakumar: ‘Injustice’ to Bengaluru over shifting IPL final
Meanwhile, Shivakumar on Monday congratulated RCB for its second successive IPL victory. However, the Karnataka Chief Minister-designate criticised the decision to move the tournament final to Ahmedabad, calling it an “injustice” to the youngsters of the state.
Shivakumar claimed that Bengaluru was stripped of the opportunity to host the finals.
As per convention, Bengaluru was the originally designated host as RCB were the defending champions.
However, the BCCI had said that owing to certain requirements from the local association and authorities that were beyond the scope of its established guidelines and protocols, the venue has been shifted and reassigned.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Shivakumar said, “Finals should have been held in Karnataka (Bengaluru), we had given permission to it. But Gujarat, by using their influence have snatched it. We are making necessary preparations to ensure that such snatching doesn’t happen. It will take time.”
“Injustice might have happened to our stadium (from hosting finals), and our youth, but the RCB team from here has played well, I congratulate them. On behalf of Karnataka state and all RCB fans of Karnataka, I wish them. They have made Karnataka proud.”
Further, he said, “Injustice has been done to Bengaluru and Karnataka’s youngsters. Because final match was supposed to be played here. They took it to Ahmedabad.”
“Always a leader is a leader….Whatever incident happened last time we all have forgotten, we have gone for the new beginning. The success story is here, all of them have played very well. I congratulate the RCB team. I know all my youngsters of Karnataka are disappointed as they could not witness the final match in Bengaluru stadium. The future is again with Karnataka (with RCB once again winning trophy),” he added.
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