DAVANGERE: FORMER minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa has kept his word of travelling by a Mercedes Benz if he was dropped from the Siddaramaiah Cabinet.
He bought a swanky Mercedes Benz car worth `60 lakh in Bengaluru on Wednesday and travelled by it to Davangere along with his minister son S S Mallikarjun.
At a press conference here on Thursday, the new white Merc was for everyone to see.
When speculations about his omission from the cabinet were doing rounds recently, he had said, “I travel by Innova car as a minister. I will travel by a Benz car after coming out of the ministry”.
He was expectedly dropped from the cabinet and his son was inducted in his place with the same Horticulture and AMPC portfolio.
The senior Congress leader and professional education who would travel to Bengaluru mogul and other places by a helicopter, used to move around in an Ambassador car, an iconic brand, which was a symbol of status, in his younger days.
In a way, he had remained loyal to Ambassador right from the day he started his business and even after becoming the honorary secretary of the Bapuji Education Association. On becoming a minister in 2013, he switched to Innova car provided by the government.