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Karnataka elections: BJP MLA calls Sonia ‘venomous woman’, Cong hits back
Yatnal is seeking re-election from Vijayapura during the May 10 assembly elections. He is also among the star campaigners of the BJP.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Friday likened former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to a ‘vishkanya’ (venomous woman) and called her “an agent of China and Pakistan”, a day after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “venomous snake” and sparked a political row.
Addressing a public meeting in Koppal in poll-bound Karnataka, Yatnal said: “The entire world appreciates Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US had not given him a visa once upon a time, but today he has emerged as a world leader who receives a red carpet welcome and rubs shoulders with world leaders.”
He added: “The Congress compares him (Modi) to a cobra and says he is poisonous. Congress leaders are dancing on the orders of Sonia Gandhi and making such comments. Is she a vishkanya? She is an agent for China and Pakistan, who destroyed the country.”
Yatnal is seeking re-election from Vijayapura during the May 10 assembly elections. He is also among the star campaigners of the BJP.
On Thursday, Kharge had triggered a political storm after he likened Modi to a “venomous snake”. As the BJP accused him of abusing the PM, the Congress leader expressed regret later in the day and said his remark was aimed at the BJP’s ideology, and not an individual.
Hours after Yatnal’s remark, the Congress demanded his expulsion and sought an apology from the PM and chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. “By way of expulsion, BJP should show that it respects women,” state Congress chief DK Shivakumar said.
“I don’t want an apology from a rogue (Yatnal) but on his behalf, PM Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai should tender an apology,” he added.
Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said BJP leaders had lost their political balance.“Facing a complete rout in the assembly elections, the BJP leadership is frustrated to the core and is hurling filth and muck, which is the product of their ugly character and dirty mindset of denigrating and insulting the Congress leadership,” he tweeted.
“Remarks made by a BJP leader in Karnataka against Sonia Gandhi reflect the rot in politics. Sonia Gandhi is respected across the country, by both ruling and the opposition parties,” Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said. The BJP distanced itself from Yatnal’s remark.
“Yatnal’s statement about Sonia Gandhi is personal. The party does not agree to it. Be it anyone, our party does not agree with such statements,” Karnataka higher education minister Ashwath Narayan told reporters.
Union minister of state for agriculture and farmers’ welfare Shobha Karandlaje said such remarks does not reflect BJP’s culture. “Yatnal should not make such statements about leaders of other parties,” Karandlaje told reporters in Chikkamagaluru.
