Siddaramaiah in fresh row: Scared of people who wear ‘long tilaks’ on forehead

Siddaramaiah has waded into another controversy over his remarks about people who wear tilaks on their forehead. (File)

Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah has waded into another controversy over his remarks about people who wear tilaks on their forehead.

Speaking at an event in Badami to inaugurate a lake rejuvenation project on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah said he was “afraid of people who wear kumkum” on their forehead and questioned their ability to work.

#WATCH Former Karnataka CM and Congress leader Siddaramaiah, says, “I am scared of people who put long tikas with kumkum or ash”, at an event, in Badami, Karnataka, yesterday pic.twitter.com/2UMjVI3DkL

— ANI (@ANI) March 6, 2019

“I am scared of people who wear kumkum. You have to do the work well and finish it on time. I don’t know…I have this fear about people who wear such long tilaks on their forehead,” the Congress leader said amid peals of laughter from the crowd.

Pointing his finger at a person, who is a contractor from Bijapur, Siddaramaiah asks flippantly, “You are wearing that kumkum, will you do the work properly? I feel scared looking at your forehead.”

This is not the first time that the former CM has landed in a row. In January, a video emerged showing Siddaramaiah behaving in a rough manner with a woman party worker, who was among dozens of people who came to meet him in Varuna region near Mysore.

The video shows the Congress leader repeatedly trying to ask the woman party worker to sit even as she tries to speak using a microphone.

Siddaramaiah is then seen grabbing the microphone — resulting in the woman’s dupatta being pulled along — and forcing the woman to sit down in front of him to explain herself.