Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Sunday denied having slapped a Congress worker on Saturday.
The incident, which was caught on camera, occurred hours before Mr. Rawat was declared the Chief Minister at a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Saturday.
While on his way to the meeting, Mr. Rawat was surrounded by party workers who shouted slogans in his support. Despite his repeated requests to them to be quiet, a party worker continued to raise slogans. It was then that Mr. Rawat slapped the worker.
When asked by a reporter during Sunday’s press conference if he would apologise for slapping the worker, Mr. Rawat said: “The individual you are talking about is my cousin Dinesh, who is from my village. ”
Implying that the incident was misinterpreted, Mr. Rawat said: “Dinesh was constantly shouting ‘zindabad’ slogans so I asked him to keep quiet. What was misinterpreted as a slap was a pat” on Dinesh’s cheek to stop him from shouting slogans.
