Bengaluru, Oct 25: Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs stayed away from the photo session of legislators of both the houses with President Ram Nath Kovind in protest against not including the regional party leaders’ names in his speech during the diamond jubilee celebration of the Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday.
Photo session was an important event in the series of programmes planned by the State Legislature on occasion of the Diamond Jubilee celebration of state's seat of power - Vidhana Soudha.
Not referring names of former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy irked the JD(S) leaders. President Ram Nath Kovind, who referred to several former chief ministers in his speech, later spontaneously mentioned the name of Mr. Deve Gowda, though it was omitted in the written speech.
This was taken note by JD(S) legislator Y.S.V. Datta, who expressed his displeasure over the omission of Mr. Deve Gowda’s name in the written speech. Responding to this, the President said: “Mr. Deve Gowda is my good friend.”
Senior legislator Basavaraj Horatti was also upset that protocol had not been followed, while allocating seats for the photo session. JD(S) leaders decided against taking part in the photo session. JD(S) leaders were upset from the beginning. They strongly protested against the State legislature's plan to distribute gold biscuits to all legislators commemorating the jubilee celebrations. They also decided against taking part in the lunch organised at Banquet Hall in Vidhana Soudha. This was following the direction of the party's state president Mr. Kumaraswamy.
Accusing the Speaker and Chairman of Legislative Assembly and Council respectively of not following the protocol, Mr. Horatti told media persons that while the President mentioned names of all the chief ministers, including that of Jagadish Shettar, in the address of Joint Session, Mr. Kumaraswamy was omitted. “How can the name of a former prime minister from Karnataka be omitted in the written speech?” he asked.
Mr. Horatti said: “We have not boycotted the photo session... we stayed away just to express our discontent over the treatment meted to JD(S) and its leaders.”
JD(S) MLC Ramesh Babu said that the organisers did not have the courtesy to offer a chair to former chief minister Mr. Kumaraswamy, following which the disgruntled party legislators “decided to boycott the photo session”.
Comments
Add new comment