In the video, a visibly-furious Siddaramaiah is seen snatching the mic from a woman complainant, causing a part of her dupatta to fall in the process. In the video, a visibly-furious Siddaramaiah is seen snatching the mic from a woman complainant, causing a part of her dupatta to fall in the process.

Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Monday stoked a controversy after a video purportedly showed him misbehaving with a woman at a public meeting in Mysuru.

In the video posted by ANI, a visibly-furious Siddaramaiah is seen snatching the microphone from a woman complainant, causing a part of her dupatta to fall in the process.

#WATCH Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah misbehaves with a woman at a public meeting in Mysuru. #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/MhQvUHIc3x — ANI (@ANI) January 28, 2019

The public interaction was organised by Siddaramaiah, his MLA son Yathindra, who represents Varuna assembly constituency, and others.

In the video, she said she was upset that his son Yathindra “showed up” seven months after getting elected. “I am not going to keep quiet. We are seeing Saheb today, during the election time,” said Jamalar, a former District Panchayat member.

Her accusation irked Siddaramaiah, who said his son keeps visiting the constituency, which she vociferously contested. To buttress her point, the woman tapped the table twice, enraging Siddaramaiah who then snatched the microphone

The BJP was quick to target the Congress over the incident and called on Rahul Gandhi to take action against its leader.

“Rahul Gandhi should tell what he’ll do with him. This is a crime, the way he abused her. That’s how they see women, they haven’t changed since the tandoor case. They only respect women from one family,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Hitting back at Siddaramaiah for losing cool, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa said: “The aggrieved woman is from Congress. She is complaining that the MLA is not available. Instead of addressing her grievance persuasively, Siddaramaiah displayed his anger by snatching the microphone from her and shouting at her.”

Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao defended Siddaramaiah and said the ‘dupatta’ incident was unintentional. “Sometimes when people start asking questions in a rough way and after hearing them out when they don’t stop, you want to pull the mic. When pulling the mic the dupatta came along with. There was no such intention,” he said.

Later, speaking to media, the woman said she should not have spoken in such manner. “I have no issues, he was the best CM. I only told him about some grievances and spoke roughly. I shouldn’t have spoken like that to a former CM. He got angry because I slammed the table,” she said.

Taking to Twitter, Siddaramaiah said the incident happened when he was trying to stop a long speech of the party worker. “It was an accident, there was no bad intention. I know her since 15 years, she is just like my sister,” he said.

Reflecting on the incident, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women Rekha Sharma said the commission would write to Karnataka police seeking appropriate action on the matter.

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