CM, M’luru Mayor exchange blows at national Karate tournament inaugural

Mangaluru: The inaugural of the the two-day national-level open karate tournament witnessed some lighter moments with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Mayor Kavitha Sanil exchanging a few blows at the event organised by Self Defense School of Indian Karate Magalore Dojo here at Nehru Maidan on November 4.

Addressing the gathering after inaugurating the tournament Chief Minster Siddaramaiah said that he has come to inaugurate this tournament at Mayor’s behest as she had been requesting him to inaugurate the Karate Tournament since the last one month and also pressurized me through district in-charge minister B Ramanth Rai and other leaders.

He also lauded Mayor Kavitha Sanil for achieving two black belts in Indian Karate and Indian Budokan Karate and stated that knowledge of martial art is a must for women.

Stating that Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon is one of his personal favourites, the CM said martial art must be introduced in schools, specifically for girls so that he can defend themselves during situations of threat.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister took a jibe at the Parivarthan rally organised by the BJP terming it as a ‘repentance rally’. He called the rally nothing but a flop show with the gathering at a dismal 20000 as against the three lac as expected by the leaders.

Regarding handing over of illegal mining cases over to the SIT, he said that discussions are on and the case maybe handed over to the SIT for a thorough probe. Earlier the CBI probing the illegal export of nearly 50,000 tonnes iron ore said that they were closing preliminary inquiries into the cases, as they “did not find prima facie case made out to set the law in motion”.

State minister B Ramanath Rai, MLA Shakunthala Shetty, MLA Abhayachandra Jain, Ivan D’ Souza, MLA Moideen Bhava and others were present at the event.