Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had a slip-of-the-tongue during an election rally in the Malavalli constituency on Tuesday – to a rather embarrassing and funny effect. The Congress leader was campaigning for sitting MLA and party candidate PN Narendra Swamy. Except, Siddaramaiah ended up asking people to vote for Narendra Modi.
“In all the villages, the work for the roads, drinking water, building houses... all of this has been made possible because of Narendra Modi…” the Chief Minister said.
Oops! Did he just have an Amit Shah moment?
However, Siddaramaiah immediately realised his gaffe – and so did the crowd, who immediately raised a chorus to point out the mistake.
“Sorry! Sorry, sorry! Narendra Swamy!” Siddaramaiah immediately corrected himself.
“The important word here is Narendra,” he then joked. “This Swamy is here, the Modi is in Gujarat. Narendra Modi is fiction, Narendra Swamy is the truth,” he went on to say.
Siddaramaiah is not the first leader to mix up names to the great pleasure of the opposition during a public rally. Earlier in the month, BJP national president Amit Shah while addressing the media said, “If there was ever a competition for corruption, then the Yeddyurappa government would get the number 1 position.” He wanted to hit out at the Congress and the Siddaramaiah government – except he ended up naming his own party’s Chief Ministerial face Yeddyurappa.
BJP MP Prahlad Joshi, who was sitting next to Amit Shah, was quick to point out the blunder to the party President, even as state chief BS Yeddyurappa, who was also present, was left red-faced.
An embarrassed Yeddyurappa also reminded Amit Shah that he should have said that the Siddaramaiah government was number one in corruption. Upon realising his error, Amit Shah corrected himself and said, “Arre, Siddaramaiah government is number one in corruption.”