Did not approach PM Modi on-stage due to years of training as police officer: R Sreelekha

Thiruvananthapuram: Former DGP and newly elected Sasthamangalam councillor R Sreelekha on Saturday said that she had kept her distance from PM Narendra Modi on-stage at the public meeting due to her long years of training and discipline not to approach a VVIP unless invited to do so.

The explanation from Sreelekha, also the state vice-president of the BJP, came following news reports that she had kept her distance from the PM, dissatisfied over not being appointed as the Mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.

Rejecting such reports as "misleading", she, in a social media video post, said that politics was new for her, as for over 33 years, what she learnt and did was a police officer's duty.

"For someone who has done a lot of VVIP duty, discipline is very important for me. So, I thought I should remain in the position I was given, as a party worker, when the PM arrived, and that is what I did.

"Probably due to the training I have received regarding not approaching unless invited, I kept to my seat. I thought it would not be right to go near the VVIP entrance through which the PM came and left, and therefore, I remained standing near my seat," she clarified.

She said that she saw TV news channels remark about it in a bad way.

"I would like to tell everyone not to be misled by such reports unnecessarily, as I am always with the BJP," she said.

Visuals on TV channels showed Sreelekha sitting in her seat in a far corner of the stage when the PM arrived, and she did not go near Modi to greet him like all the other leaders on-stage at the Putharikandam Maidan public meeting.

Later, she left the stage from the same corner where she was standing as the other leaders went to see off the PM.

Modi arrived in the state capital on Friday and launched several development projects, flagged off four trains in Kerala and also addressed a public gathering of party workers and supporters.