Bengaluru/Mangaluru (PTI): Rich tributes were paid to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on their birth anniversaries in Karnataka on Sunday.

Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai joined many others to offer their floral tributes to Gandhiji on his 153rd birth anniversary.

Gehlot offered his respect to Gandhiji at Rajbhavan in the presence of the staff of the Governor House.

The Chief Minister paid his tributes at Gandhiji's statue situated between Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha. He also offered floral tributes to Shastri at Vidhana Soudha.

Bommai also inaugurated an event to mark the occasion and gave away Mahatma Gandhi Seva Prashasti-Karnataka for the year 2022.

BJP Karnataka state president and MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, State Minister for Energy, Kannada and Cultue V Sunil Kumar and other leaders paid homage to Gandhiji.

The leaders offered floral tributes at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in front of the town hall in Mangaluru.

Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath also joined them in paying homage to Gandhiji.

The new footpath constructed in front of the town hall was inaugurated by Sunil Kumar, who is also Dakshina Kannada district-in-charge minister.

City Mayor Jayanand Anchan and deputy mayor Poornima were among those present.

The ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in Karnataka organised various events to mark the occasion.

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Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.

On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.

That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.

Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.

He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.

He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.

After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.

Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.

On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.

On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."

He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.

In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."