Siddaramaiah watches play staged by advocates

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took a break from his hectic schedule to watch a mythological play enacted by advocates in Mysuru on Saturday.

The former Chief Minister was accompanied by former Minister H.C. Mahadevappa, D. Thimmaiah, MLC, an former MLAs M.K Somashekar and Vasu among others at Kalamandira in the City where the advocates staged a play called Kurukshetra.

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah watching a mythological play enacted by advocates at Kalamandira in Mysuru on Saturday. | Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram

The staging of the play organised by the Advocates Association of Mysuru had the advocates themselves enacting various roles.

Mr. Siddaramaiah, who said he came to watch the play at the invitation of the Advocates Association of Mysuru, recalled that he used to watch a lot of plays when he was a lawyer.

Recalling that he was acting in plays when he was studying in a law college, the former Chief Minister said he had played the role of a doctor in a play called “Yamadevarayana Sannidhi”.

Mr. Siddaramaiah also pointed out that late Kannada thespian Rajkumar had grown into well known artiste because of his performances in mythological plays. He lamented the decline in interest for mythological plays nowadays and emphasised the need for making the plays interesting so that they become popular again.

Fielding queries from reporters on the allegations levelled by former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy that Congress was responsible for the victory of the third BJP candidate in the recent Rajya Sabha polls, Mr. Siddaramaiah sought to turn the tables against the JD(S) by claiming that it was the Congress that fielded a candidate first. “If BJP were to be defeated, the JD(S) should not have fielded a candidate”, he said.

Mr. Siddaramaiah against recalled that the Congress had not fielded a candidate when former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda contested for the Rajya Sabha elections. “Just like the Congress had not fielded any candidate against Mr. Gowda, the JD(S) too should not have fielded a candidate now”, he said.

Mr. Siddaramaiah also sought to remind the JD(S) that the Congress had supported Mr. Kumaraswamy to become the Chief Minister. “We had fielded a candidate belonging to the minority community in these elections. If the JD(S) was averse to BJP’s victory, the party should have supported our candidate”, he said before claiming that the JD(S) was squarely responsible for the BJP’s victory in the elections.