BJP flies into rage over remarks on Smriti Irani

An exchange of words between Congress and BJP spokespersons on Gujarat results snowballed into a major row, with the BJP asking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to act against her party secretary and MP Sanjay Nirupam for his "indecent and derogatory" comments against its women's wing chief Smriti Irani.

An exchange of words between Congress and BJP spokespersons on Gujarat results snowballed into a major row, with the BJP asking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to act against her party secretary and MP Sanjay Nirupam for his "indecent and derogatory" comments against its women's wing chief Smriti Irani.

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BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said party spokespersons and leaders would not attend channel debates in which he was participating.

"The kind of language and choice of words by Nirupam in a news channel debate against Irani, who is our mahila morcha chief and MP as well as an established TV actor, is most unfortunate. He crossed all limits of decency and decorum."

The Congress MP apparently questioned the credentials of Irani to analyse election results as her background was a television actress.

He reportedly said "till some time ago you were dancing on the television screens and now you have become a psephologist."

Reacting to the remarks by the party MP, Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said, "This is very regrettable. To say such a thing is unfortunate. It is this mindset which we have to fight."

Prasad said, "Nirupam has made anti-women comments and BJP strongly condemns it. We expect Sonia Gandhi to take action against him and apologise herself," Prasad said.

Irani is in the process of sending a legal notice to Nirupam.