BENGALURU: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's event to lay the foundation stone for several development projects and unveil the statues of Dr B R Ambedkar and 'NadaPrabhu' Kempegowda at Ramanagara district headquarters, 50 km from here, witnessed a ruckus with Congress Lok Sabha member D K Suresh and minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan almost locking horns on the dais over the latter's remarks on 'manliness' on Monday.
The Bengaluru rural MLC S Ravi, a nephew of Suresh, tried to snatch the mike of Ashwath Narayan before the police intervened and calmed the situation. However, the Lok Sabha member and MLC squatted on the dais against the minister's remarks.
Amidst the furore, the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai chose to cut short his speech for a minute or so. "We have unveiled the statues of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Nada Prabhu Kempegowda and should show high regards for them. No leader's personal prestige is at stake in this event," he remarked.
It all started when the Chief Minister and the minister took along the Ramanagara MLA Anitha Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) to unveil the statue of Ambedkar allegedly ignoring the Lok Sabha member who sat in the front row. After his supporters yelled 'DK DK', minister for higher education, IT and BT Ashwath Narayan took the Congress leader to task for creating a 'planned' furore.
"By collecting some of your supporters you have created all this. If you have guts, show your 'manliness' in development. The BJP is meant for development," he stated.
Suresh got up from his seat and forced his way to Ashwath Narayana and the duo almost locked horns. The MLC Ravi tried to snatch the mike to make an announcement to the audience but in vain.
Anitha Kumaraswamy meanwhile suggested to Ashwath Narayan not to make use of the dais for politics which the latter denied, saying his speech was on development.
Ministers Dr K Sudhakar, V Somanna and BA Basavaraj and senior officials were also present on the occasion.