After videos and images of him holding slippers to enable Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi wear them went viral, former Union Minister V Narayanasamy today said he did that out of courtesy to help his party top leader wade through a flooded street in Puducherry.
Yesterday, Rahul Gandhi toured flood-hit regions of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. During his visit to the Union Territory, regional Congress leaders, including Narayanasamy had accompanied him.
Among Rahul’s tour pictures and videos was one showing Narayanasamy — slightly bent — and holding a pair of slippers for his leader to wear and it went viral.
A section of the media claimed that the former Union Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office during UPA-II was holding Rahul Gandhi’s slippers.
Asked about it, Narayanasamy said,”it was not Rahul Gandhi’s slippers, it was mine and I was holding it for him to wear out of courtesy so that he could walk through a flooded neighbourhood.”
“Rahulji was wearing shoes and he had to remove it as the street was flooded. As he got ready to walk barefoot, I offered mine as the flooded street had thorns and rough stones,” he told.
“I followed Rahulji by wearing another pair of slippers given to me by a party worker,” he said.
A former Member of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Narayanasamy is a prominent Congress leader in Puducherry.
