THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Adding to her list of fallouts with the BJP, R Sreelekha, the party’s candidate in the high-profile Vattiyoorkkavu constituency, on Monday walked out of her own campaign event following a lack of acknowledgement of her name by the chief guest, Union Minister S Jaishankar.
After reconciliation talks made by the party’s state leaders, Sreelekha returned to the stage and attended the event. In an apparent damage control move, she later told the media that she had no such issue and termed it “cheap news”.
The incident happened when External Affairs Minister Jaishankar attended Sreelekha’s election campaign event online. While speaking during a key voters’ meet at Hotel Mascot here, Jaishankar skipped mentioning Vattiyoorkavu and Sreelekha, soon after which the retired DGP expressed her dissent to the party’s state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who too was on stage at the event. While Rajeev, speaking after the Union minister, attempted to acknowledge and seek votes for her, Sreelekha walked off the stage.
The issue gained public attention when videos of Sreelekha having a stiff conversation with BJP state vice-president K Soman outside the hotel surfaced in the media. In the video, she is seen saying that her name was not mentioned in her own campaign event.
However, when the incident went viral, Sreelekha blamed the controversy on the media.