Belagavi: Dismissing any dinner meet with MLAs, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar today said that he can’t say no to dinner invitations from his party men. Speaking to reporters at Circuit House, he said, “Friends from the region affectionately call me for lunch or dinner, how can I say no? It is not any dinner meet, but I have to go when I am invited.”

Asked about his purported dinner meet with MLAs on the outskirts of Belagavi, he said, “A boy from my constituency is working here, he said he will send ‘mudde and upsaaru’ for lunch. Can I say no? Day after, Asif Sait and Feroze Sait have invited me.”

“Doddannavar is a former president of Belagavi district Congress and he is a friend too. He has been inviting me home for dinner for a long time. Can I forget my Congress family? Hence, I and a few others had gone there for dinner. It was not a dinner meet.”