Vice President of the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi (R) and Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah
Vice President of the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi (R) and Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah look on during the Gram Swaraj Samavesh, a convention of representatives of panchayats and urban local bodies, organised by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in Bangalore on October 9, 2015.Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images [Representational Image]

The National Commission for Women (NCW) took suo moto cognisance of former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah's alleged misbehaviour towards a woman and has directed the Karnataka police to take action against him.

The incident took place at a public meeting in Varuna, Mysuru, on Monday.

In a video that has gone viral, a furious Siddaramaiah can be seen behaving angrily and apparently manhandling Jamal Ara. He is seen snatching the microphone from her hands, and her scarf is seen coming down during the act. 

Congress worker Jamal Ara is a former panchayat president of T Narsipur taluk. She was complaining about employees of the revenue department to the Congress leader.  The former CM banged the table and asked if the area legislators are not reachable. 

The woman also banged the table over his response and said that the MLA is not reachable. The local MLA is none other than Siddaramaiah's son Yathindra.

NCW chief Rekha Sharma told a news channel that she will raise the matter with Karnataka DGP.  

"I want the police to file an FIR and take an action against him. Proper punishment would be an FIR against him by the Police seeking action against him," said Sharma, reports Times Now.

After the whole incident, Jamal played down the act saying that Siddaramaiah was enraged because she banged the table. "He is my leader and the tiger of Mysuru" she added, reports TOI.

Siddramaiah responded to the incident saying it was an accident. He said that he just tried to stop the party worker from taking more time and Jamal is like a sister to him, who he knows for more than 15 years.

siddaramiah tweet
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The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took up the matter on social media. The BJP slammed the Congress leader saying Siddaramiah is demon Dushyasana. 

"CM @hd_kumaraswamy asks a farmer women were she slept. JDS MLA Sa Ra Mahesh calls women cop bloody rascal & here is @siddaramaiah threatening & abusing a woman openly Demon Dushyasana is finally reborn & resumed power in govt of Karnataka. This is how Cong-JDS treats women", reads the tweet.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar also responded to the incident. He asked Congress national president Rahul Gandhi to take action against Siddaramaiah.

"He is behaving like this with a woman and it's seen in a video. The way she has been insulted. This is a serious issue that happened in public. Congress has not changed since Tandoor case and that's why only one family and woman will be respected," Javadekar said.

Yathindra Siddaramaiah, who was also present at the event, said he doesn't think his father should apologise for the incident as the incident was unintentional, reports Times Now.