Bengaluru: In another incident of ‘hot mike moment’, an embarrassing conversation between Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddaramaiah at a program in Bengaluru has put the Congress in an embarrassing spot.
The purported conversation that took place on October 31 to mark the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi surfaced on social media late Tuesday.
In the video which has gone viral, Siddaramaiah can be heard asking about the absence of a portrait of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. “Today it is his (Sardar Patel) birth anniversary,” Siddaramaiah says in Kannada before asking Shivakumar, “There is no portrait of him?”
Shivakumar then replies: “We never keep the photo (of Sardar Patel)”.
After a pause, Siddaramaiah warns him that the BJP “will take advantage” of this.
Shivakumar then agrees and immediately instructs Congress workers present at the venue to put up a portrait of Sardar Patel, too.
Former minister and BJP leader M P Renukacharya tweeted the video of the purported conversation saying “Congress respects Patel for fear of BJP.”
FPJ has not been able to independently verify the video released by Renukacharya.
BJP National General Secretary CT Ravi said in a tweet: “If anyone had doubt how much the Nehru Dynasty hated Sardar Patel, this video clears it. Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar agree to place a photo of Sardar Patel along with that of Indira Gandhi fearing BJP.”
He further made a snide reference to Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi saying, “It is a shame that slaves are so much scared of an Italian.”
This was not the first time a purported off-the-record conversation has landed the Congress in a soup.
Last month, the party’s former MP and media coordinator were caught on camera making serious corruption allegations against Shivakumar minutes before they were to address a press conference. The party later suspended media coordinator Saleem and issued show-cause notice to V S Ugrappa, a former MP.
