Munirathna Naidu rubbishes allegations against him

Dramatic scenes played out in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council on Thursday after HMT ward councillor S. Asha Suresh alleged harassment by Rajarajeshwarinagar MLA Munirathna Naidu and later went up to Mayor B.N. Manjunath Reddy and submitted her resignation.

A visibly anguished Ms. Suresh alleged that she was at the receiving end of the MLA’s ire, who had harassed her and even threatened her family over the past three years. She claimed Mr. Naidu was also preventing her from taking up development works in her ward.

“I felt that working under an MLA from the same party (Congress) would be a breeze and that there would be a good rapport. However, in reality, the past three years have taught me otherwise. No funds have been sanctioned to my ward. BBMP engineers have been instructed by the MLA directly. The MLA has even written to Commissioner G. Kumar Naik asking him not to sanction any bills of works executed in my ward,” she charged.

Even as she was submitting her resignation letter to the Mayor, a few councillors from the BJP, tried to stop her from doing so. She also found support in many women councillors. Mamatha K.B. Vasudev from J.P. Park ward too claimed she was harassed by the MLA’s “right hand”, a councillor himself.

Later, Ruling Party Leader R.S. Sathyanarayan told reporters that the councillor had earlier raised this issue with the party high command. “We will apprise Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy about the developments, besides organising a meeting between both the MLA and the councillor to settle the differences amicably. We will also convince her to withdraw her resignation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Naidu rubbished the allegations against him. He claimed that things came to a head when he visited HMT ward at the behest of some citizens. He said he had orally asked the BBMP Commissioner to investigate works executed at a total cost of Rs. 50 crore over the past five years in the ward. He also said he was contemplating filing a defamation case against the councillor, and added that he would abide by the decision taken by the Congress high command.