Siddaramaiah should be ashamed to support suspended MLA Sangamesh: Shettar

Heavy Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar slammed Siddaramaiah, Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly, for justifying the deeds of Bhadravathi MLA B K Sangamesh in the House, saying that he should be ashamed to support Sangamesh.

“Today Siddaramaiah is supporting Sangamesh’s act of standing shirtless in assembly, tomorrow he may encourage an MLA of being ‘dress less,” he said, adding that Sangamesh should be suspended from assembly for rest of the term for his unruly behaviour in the Assembly and for threatening the speaker.

Sangamesh was suspended from the Assembly for a week on Thursday after he removed his shirt protesting an FIR against him and his family members.

He said that the Speaker’s ruling is final and can not be questioned, adding that threatening the Speaker amounts to a breach of privilege, and Sangamesh is known for indulging in threatening politics all through his life in Bhadravathi. Sangamesh is not fit to be an MLA, he said.

Read | Congress' protest over Sangamesh suspension washes out Karnataka Assembly session

Shettar also told the media that some ministers in Yediyurappa’s cabinet have knocked the doors of court as precautionary measures against their character assassination.

He said one can not restore a man’s reputation once a piece of wrong information is circulated. “To prevent such a scenario, six ministers have approached the court and there is nothing wrong in it,” he said and added that elected representatives are living in strange times, where a victim of sexual harassment is not filing a case, but someone else is.

When asked about Ramesh Jarkiholi case and electing his brother Balachandra Jarkiholi as a cabinet minister, Shettar said he would not discuss such issues in public and the party will take a decision on it.