A BJP corporator caused a flutter in the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) in western Maharashtra, by kissing a fellow male Congress corporator sitting next to him on his cheek at a special general meeting held on Thursday.
Amid a special general meeting of the KMC called to consider Mayor Surmanjari Latkar’s resignation, the House was taken aback to see BJP corporator Kamalkar Bhople planting a deep kiss on one of the cheeks of Congress corporator Sharangadhar Deshmukh of the ruling Congress-NCP alliance, sitting next to him.
Before long, a video clip of the incident went viral in the media. As could be seen from the video clip, the members of both the treasury and Opposition benches broke into peals of laughter, as a straight-faced Bhople all of a sudden pulled Deshmukh closer to him with both of his hands and planted a kiss. Deshmukh took Bhople’s act in his stride and was all smiles.
Incidentally, Deshmukh is the leader of the House and chairman of the civic standing committee. Though the actual reason behind Bhople’s act was not immediately known, one could gather from the the chain of events that led to the incident was that the BJP corporator was more comfortable being with the ruling Congress-NCP alliance corporators than with his own party corporators. The BJP and Tararani Aghadi combine are an Opposition alliance in the KMC.
Soon after the special general meeting started, Bhople walked across from the Opposition benches to the treasury benches and sat next to Deshmukh.
An hour and a half later, Bhople planted a kiss on Deshmukh’s check. Before doing so, Bhople was heard saying: “I do not get as much of respect in my own party as much as I do in the ruling Congress-NCP alliance. I am very happy being with the ruling alliance corporators”.
It remains to be seen if Bhople, who seems to be very unhappy being within th4e BJP, will switch sides and join the Congress in the coming days. Or will the BJP initiate disciplinary action against Bhople and expel him from the party for his questionable act?
