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Congress and BJP spat takes another ugly turn in karnataka
The Congress party took serious objections to the statements, demanding an apology from the BJP state president.
The war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued on Tuesday after the state president of the saffron outfit, Nalin Kumar Kateel, called Rahul Gandhi a ‘drug addict’ and ‘peddler’.
Kateel had also targeted Sonia Gandhi, the interim president of the Congress party in his statements made in Hubballi, in which he said that the Congress national president, vice president and even the state president were out on bail.
“Your G-23 says that she is not yet the national president. Sonia Gandhi says that she is the president. One side says Rahul Gandhi should be made president. What is Rahul Gandhi? I am not saying this, but he is a drug addict, a drug peddler,” Kateel had said.
He added that if the Congress could not run its own party and how can this outfit run the country, making an apparent reference to the troubles within the party including dissent, defection and infighting.
The Congress party took serious objections to the statements, demanding an apology from the BJP state president.
The statements come a day after the Karnataka Congress was forced to delete a tweet that was pulled up by its own president for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘Angootha Chaap’ or illiterate.
“Yesterday I said I believe we should be civil and respectful in politics, even to our opponents. I hope the BJP agrees with me, and will apologise for their state president’s abusive and unparliamentary remarks against Rahul Gandhi,” DK Shivakumar, the state Congress president said in a post on Twitter.
Last night, he had posted that civil and unparliamentary language is “non-negotiable” for political discourse and that the uncivil tweet made by its own twitter team is “regretted” and stands withdrawn.
The confrontation comes even as campaigning for the October 30 bypolls in Hanagal and Sindgi gains steam with all three political parties hoping to secure victories.
“@nalinkateelhas made despicable statements against Sri @RahulGandhi. How can such an uncultured and senseless man be the @BJP4Karnataka president. He has shown how polluted his mind his and how the BJP is a party filled with crass and lumpen elements,” Dinesh Gundu Rao, the former state president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and five-time legislator from Bengaluru said on Tuesday.
The targeting of Rahul Gandhi comes even as the BJP in Karnataka continues to attack the Congress over its troubles in state with the president (Shivakumar) and the leader of the opposition (Siddaramaiah) allegedly fighting for dominance within the party.
Randeep Singh Surjewala, the national general secretary incharge of Karnataka said that the state BJP president was drunk with power and drugged with arrogance.
Siddaramaiah said that Kateel, the member of parliament from Dakshina Kannada, had lost his mental balance.
Kateel had even said that the Congress would be divided into two before the next elections as the infighting would split the party.
