A video showing Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dancing to the tunes of a popular Kannada song has been doing rounds on the social media all of last week. While it was a joke for many, some gave it a political spin stating it was unbecoming of a Chief Minister to dance in front of a ‘drunk crowd’.
However, the man seen in the video is not Siddaramaiah, but a farmer from Mysuru, dressed like Siddaramaiah.
The man seen in the video is Channamahagowda, a lookalike of the Chief Minister. The video was taken during a workshop on sustainable grains and millets at Kaggalipura cultural center in outskirts of Bengaluru, on March 7.
Channamahagowda, who is known as a junior Siddaramaiah because of his resemblance, had dressed up in white lungi shirt and a towel over his shoulder, just like the Chief Minister. In the evening, after the workshop, Channamahagowda performed the dance.
Kannada daily Vijaya Karnataka quoted one of the participants of workshop Aanekatte Vishwanath, saying he had live-streamed the dance on Facebook, but some of the BJP workers misused the video.
Talking to the Deccan Chronicle, Channamahadgowda said that although he was happy about his villagers calling him Siddaramaiah, since his video was mistaken for the Chief Minister, his family grew anxious about his sudden popularity.
While the video has been debunked, it continues to do the rounds of WhatsApp across the state.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)