Major and Medium Irrigation Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi met the family members of the late Union Minister Suresh C. Angadi in Belagavi on Friday. He spoke to them for a few minutes, before meeting some of the late leader’s followers outside his house.
He told journalists that he was close to the former minister as he was a senior party colleague. “Mr. Angadi, Jagadish Shettar, and myself made a formidable team of north Karnataka leaders in the party,” he said. “I consider his wife, Mangala, like my sister. We were neighbours and family friends in Gokak. She grew up along with my own sisters,” she said.
He accused Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D.K. Shivakumar of playing cheap politics over the death of the senior leader.
“He [Mr. Shivakumar] is not a leader of any significance to make such statements. He should stop playing such petty politics,” he said.
Earlier, Mr. Shivakumar had claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party had insulted Mr. Angadi’s memory by not bringing his mortal remains to Belagavi.
He told journalists at Sambra airport that the BJP leaders should have allowed shifting the body to Belagavi and permitted his family members and followers to pay their last respects.
“But this was not done. I think that it amounts to betrayal of a senior leader's family,” Mr. Shivakumar added.
