Patna, Feb. 4: A spat occurred between Aurangabad MLA Anand Shankar and district magistrate Kanwal Tanuj at the Deo Mahotsav organised at the Sun temple at Deo, around 160km southwest of the state capital.

The MLA was unhappy with arrangements at the two-day event that started yesterday evening, and pointed them out in his speech from the dais to which the district magistrate quickly rebutted and objected. And, all this happened in front of thousands of people who had gathered there.

Shankar, a Congress legislator, asserted before the public that he would speak the truth and would not hesitate to say that the event was being organised in the worst manner.

"Other buildings on the temple premiseswere not painted and decorated like previous years despite a good budget. This event used to attract singers like Udit Narayan, Kailash Kher and Abhijit Sawant but now artistes have been invited whose names we don't know," Shankar said.

The MLA went on to add that at the best he would "give just three marks out of 10" to the way it had been organised.

Responding quickly to the accusations, Tanuj sprang up to the lectern asserting that he was satisfied with the way the people expressed their happiness over the event, and was least bothered about anybody else's opinions.

"The public was dancing and gave 10 out of 10 to the festival. That is enough for me. I am not bothered about anybody else," Tanuj spoke into the microphone on the dais.

The Deo Mahotsav is being organised by the district administration for the past 10 years and talking to The Telegraph, the Aurangabad legislator said this year Rs 26 lakh was allotted by the government to organise it.

"Deo comes under my constituency and the district magistrate did not invite me to the first two meetings held to discuss preparations for the festival. I was invited to the third and last one just a few hours before it was to be held," Shankar said.

The legislator also accused the DM of holding a grudge against him because he had objected to the way his arms licence was not being renewed while others were being granted new licences.

Later, responding to the queries by The Telegraph, the Aurangabad DM messaged a reply: "The honourable MLA expressed his dissatisfaction over certain issues related to administration (although the occasion might not have been very pertinent). In doing this, he used some words that we thought were discourteous towards the guest performers. Being the main organiser, I apologised with the guests for this discourtesy."