Mysuru (Karnataka), Sep 28 (IANS) Former minister and six-time MLA, Tanveer Sait, on Monday expressed displeasure over Urban Development Minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah’s delay in attending a breakfast organised for Dasara elephant mahouts, kawadis and their family members at the Mysuru Palace premises.

The programme was scheduled for 9 a.m., but Yathindra Siddaramaiah had not arrived even after much delay, leaving the mahouts, kawadis and their family members waiting for his arrival.

Expressing his displeasure over the delay, Sait left the venue and spoke to the Deputy Commissioner, questioning the arrangements and the minister’s lack of punctuality.

“Don’t you have a sense of time? What should be done if there is no sense of time? There is a limit to everything. Let them do anything in other matters, but is it right to make mahouts wait for their breakfast?” Sait said, adding that he had left the venue.

Yathindra Siddaramaiah later arrived at the venue and served breakfast to the mahouts and kawadis.

Clarifying the delay, Yathindra said he was yet to fully settle into his new house in Mysuru and that things were still being arranged.

“My new house is not arranged yet. Things are helter-skelter. My mother was not at home, I was alone and even the workers were not there. It took some time to get ready, arrange things and arrive. It was not intentional,” he said.

Sait, who represents the Mysuru region, had also been critical of the functioning of the state government under former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Tanveer Sait has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) six times from the Narasimharaja constituency in Mysuru, Karnataka. He first won a bye-election in May 2002 following his father’s passing, and has won every consecutive election since then, securing his sixth term in the May 2003/2023 state Assembly elections and he is closer to Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar.

Former minister Tanveer Sait had expressed disappointment over not being inducted into D.K. Shivakumar’s Cabinet, with his name missing from the list of Ministers cleared by the AICC. Sait, who was a strong aspirant for a ministerial berth and had remained confident of securing the party high command’s approval during second phase of Cabinet expansion. Insiders state that Tanveer Sait has been snubbed to ensure steady political growth of Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra.

–IANS

mka/rad