Bengaluru: The BJP government in Karnataka would evacuated the lesson on the eighteenth century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan from school history books as he was a "tyrant" and prosecuted the Hindus, state CM B.S. Yedyiurappa said on Wednesday.

"As exercises on Tipu Sultan must not be in school text books, we will not allow them to proceed," Yedyuirappa told journalists here.

Tipu (1750-1799) was the king of then Mysore state in southern India and died in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799 at Srirangapatna close to Mysore when a series of victories in battles against the British rulers.

Mysore is around  150 km southwest of Bengaluru.

"We have already decided not to celebrate Tipu's birthday on 10 November as a state function, as he was a controversial ruler and indulged in forcible conversions, destruction of temples and harassment of the Hindus," Yedyuirappa said at a meet-the-press event here.

The Congress, however, opposed the move to ban Tipu Sultan lesson in school history books and stopping  Tipu Jayanti celebrations across the state.

"It is unfortunate that the BJP government has chosen to expel the Tipu lesson and stop celebrating Tipu's birthday as part of its ideological agenda for vote bank politics though he was the first freedom fighter who fought the British to remain independent," says Siddaramaiah.

State Education Minister Suresh Kumar has coordinated  the Karnataka text book society managing director to study an appeal by BJP's Madikeri assembly segment legislator Appachu Ranjan for expelling  the lesson on Tipu from history books in schools.

"Tipu Sultan has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in the school text books in Kannada and English with no mention that he was a tyrant and forced Hindus to embrace Islam," Ranjan said in a letter to Suresh Kumar.