Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, Apr 30: Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was taken aback at a question that was posed to her by one of the commoners at an interactive programme organized by the Basavanagudi unit of 'Yuva Bharatha' at the PES College here in the city.

A person in the gathering at the programme said, "Yeddyurappa has failed in performing as a chief minister. In addition, he has many cases of scams on him and he was even in prison. There were cases of misappropriation of funds on many of his colleagues who were in his cabinet. Even after these many issues, is it right to have declared Yeddyurappa as the BJP chief ministerial candidate this time too?"

Nirmala who was taken aback by the sudden tricky question took some time to respond and after regaining, composure said, "This is not the right time to answer this question. There are ten more days for the voting. You are asking a question, which is supposed to be posed by the opposition parties. Now the time is for us to progress towards our aim and not weakening."

In the same session, Nirmala did not give clear-cut answers to questions posed on rape and reservation in education.