Siddaramaiah's aide manhandles journalist in Delhi

A scuffle broke out outside Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi as Congress leader Siddaramiah's aide and Hebbal MLA Byrathi Suresh manhandled a journalist. However, Siddaramiah stepped in to pacify the journalist after the incident, reported NewsX.

According to the report, a delegation of senior Congress leaders are in Delhi today to attend the party's Central Election Committee meeting to finalise the second list of candidates for the remaining 100 seats of the 224 Assembly segments in Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah was at Karnataka Bhavan with his followers. When the journalist wanted ask the former Chief Minister a question on his recent claim that he is the front-runner for the CM post, the scuffle broke out as MLA Suresh abused the journalist in foul language. However, Siddaramaiah intervened to pacify both the sides before heading to the AICC office.

A video of the heated verbal exchange between the MLA and the journalist has gone viral on social media, though the clip does not show Suresh manhandling the journalist.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah has sought to clarify that the reports claiming him saying that State Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar does not stand a chance to occupy the Chief Minister post, is not correct.

"What is being quoted in the media is totally false. All I said is that the selection of the CM is a democratic process. I am an aspirant for CM and he (Shivakumar) is also an aspirant. But what they're saying is false," ANI reported Siddaramaiah as tweeting on Tuesday.

In an interview on Monday, Siddaramaiah had said that high command will not intervene to choose the next Chief Minister if the party emerges victorious in the upcoming Assembly polls as the elected MLAs have to make a choice.

"Because we have to go by the democratic process, the high command won't take a decision on its own and would go by the opinion of the newly elected MLAs," NDTV quoted Siddaramaiah as saying. However, some reports quoted him as saying that the high command would not allow Shivakumar to become the Chief Minister.