Apology sought from Cong MLA for making sarpanch sit on floor

A sarpanch body in Rajasthan on Tuesday demanded an apology from a Congress legislator who had asked a village head to sit on the floor instead on a chair beside her at a meeting.

The video, which went viral, has MLA Divya Maderna asking the Khetasar village head in Osian area of Jodhpur district to sit among the people on the ground. This has angered the Rajasthan Sarpanch Sangh.

“Divya must apologise for the humiliation of a female sarpanch. If she does not do so, she should be ready to face our ire", said Bhanwarlal, president of the Rajasthan Sarpanch Sangh. There was also a series of backlashes on social media.

"I am very disappointed with the behaviour meted out to me by Maderna. I had gone to the meeting of Maderna on the insistence of the villagers and also sat on the dais after the villagers wanted me to sit beside the MLA," Devi said. She said she did not expect such a behaviour from a fellow woman, that too a public representative.

Maderna defended herself by saying that the meeting was organised to give thanks to the villagers for voting the Congress to power and Devi, belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, had no place on the dais. Later, the Osian MLA confessed to not knowing that Devi was a sarpanch.

“I could not recognise her. I considered her a simple villager and thought that she had come to me on the dais with some grievance.”

Maderna was meeting with the villages of her constituency to pay gratitude to her voters for electing her as an MLA.