Mysuru: Making light of Monday’s incident in a village in Varuna constituency, where he snatched the microphone from a former taluk panchayat president, along with her dupatta in anger at her remarks, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said here on Tuesday that there was nothing to it.
“The BJP has no issue to raise and so it has made it one. Jamlar (the former taluk panchayat chief) is our party worker and she herself has explained what happened. Let’s leave it there,” he told reporters here. Also dismissing BJP leaders comparing his behaviour to that of characters in the Mahabharatha, he snapped, “Yes they do it and the media does it too.”
Ms Jamlar, for her part, told reporters that she had nothing to say against Mr Siddaramaiah and he had merely reacted to her rude behaviour at the public event. “ Mr Siddaramaiah is a very good man. He was the best Chief Minister. While sharing problems of the revenue department, I behaved in a rude manner and banged on the table with my hand. I should not have done that in front of a former Chief Minister. So he got a little angry and snatched the mike from my hand,” she said, adding, “ I didn’t mean that MLA, Dr Yathindra does not visit the constituency. He does, but I have not been able to meet him, that’s all. It is not Dr Yathindra’s fault, but of the party workers, who don’t intimate us.”
Ms Jamlar said that she had apologised to Mr Siddaramaiah. The former CM ad lost his temper when she accused his son Yathindra, Varuna MLA, of not being available to the people of the constituency in her speech, hitting the table to emphasise her point, at the public event in the constituency.
Meanwhile, condoling the death of former Union Minister, George Fernandes, Mr Siddaramaiah, called him a tall leader, who had worked for many causes, especially during the Emergency.
“He was very close to me and helped me a lot in 1983 and 1985. We used to meet him whenever he was in Bengaluru. He was unwell for the past few years and could not recognise me when I met him a year ago,” he added.
