Bommai flays Congress MP, minister for public spat

Kalburgi: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has flayed both Ramanagara Congress parliament D.K. Suresh and his cabinet colleague and Higher Education and IT Minister Ashwath Narayan for creating a scene at the public meeting at Ramanagar on Monday. A visibly miffed Bommai said the situation was blown out of proportion and escalated without any cause in full public view.

Bommai arrived at Kalburgi airport on his way to attend the Karnataka State Journalists Union annual conference. Speaking to media persons, Bommai said everybody had the right to speak in a public meeting and it should not be a forum for settling personal scores.

Indirectly supporting Ashwath Narayan, Chief Minister said he (Ashwath Narayan) was only airing his person views on developmental programmes. Maybe the words were strong. But that should not have been construed as personal affrontery by the Congress MP. This confrontation was uncalled for, he said.

A day after the public spat between the lone Congress MP from the State and the minister, a few political workers created roadblocks on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway at Ramanagaram in a bid to stop vehicular traffic. However, the highway patrol police stepped in and removed the roadblocks.

Suresh had moved menacingly towards Ashwatha Narayan while the latter was addressing at a programme and asked him to stop. When the minister had objected, a certain party leader had snatched the microphone and pushed him.

Leaders from both BJP and Congress condemned the incident while MLA from Ramanagar and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy tweeted that "Ramanagar does not belong to one party or one family and all the developmental works taken up there was the right of the people". He condemned the incident and flayed both BJP and Congress for making Ramanagar their turf for settling political scores.