Mangaluru: Former Congressman Harikrishna Bantwal slammed district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai and urged both the Chief minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dr G Parameshwar to sack B Ramanath Rai from Congress party and drop him from the cabinet for using derogatory and abusive comments against veteran Congress leader B Janardhana Poojary.
Addressing a press meet here, Harikrishna Bantwal alleged that the district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai used derogatory comments against senior Congressman B Janardhana Poojary at a marriage function held in Buntara Bhavana, Surathkal in the presence of former district Youth Congress president Arun Coelho and state youth Congress secretary Tejaswi Raj on February 6.
Breaking down emotionally during the press meet, Harikrishna Bantwal told that Poojary, who was instrumental in introducing Rai to politics and later made him an MLA was deeply pained to hear this news. “He was with the Janatha Party till about 1980. Later, B Janardhana Poojary gave him a ticket and made him an MLA. He should have refrained from using derogatory words against a senior leader like Poojary, who has contributed immensely to the society,” said Bantwal adding that Rai has also questioned, “Where is your Poojary. Is he alive or dead ?”
Terming Rai as modern ‘Shishupala’ he said that the Hindu-Muslim conflict in the district would end if Ramanath Rai is sacked from the cabinet.
“He wants this conflict for the ‘vote and note’ purposes. Rai has two faces and he surely does not want harmony in the society,” he said.
