Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who stoked a controversy by calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "poisonous snake" during a public meeting in poll-bound Karnataka, said on Thursday he will express “special regret” if his statement has hurt anyone and if it was “misconstrued”.
“If my statement has hurt anyone, if it was misconstrued and distressed anyone, I will express special regret for it,” the Congress chief was quoted by ANI.
On Thursday, while addressing the crowd in Kalaburagi, Kharge said, “PM Narendra Modi is like a poisonous snake. Now if you want to test a venom because I compared him with a poisonous snake, beware it will lead to your death.”
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He later clarified his statement and said, “My comments are not meant for PM Modi. I called the BJP ideology poisonous, not attacking PM Modi personally. All I meant was if anyone touches BJP ideology, they will be dead because of the poison."
The remarks drew huge backlash from BJP leaders, with the party's IT cell chief Amit Malviya saying that the Congress is stooping to a new low every day. “Now Congress President Kharge calls Prime Minister Modi ‘poisonous snake’. What started with Sonia Gandhi’s ‘maut ka saudagar’, and we know how it ended, the Congress continues to plummet to new depths. The desperation shows Congress is losing ground in Karnataka and knows it," Malviya tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}The remarks drew huge backlash from BJP leaders, with the party's IT cell chief Amit Malviya saying that the Congress is stooping to a new low every day. “Now Congress President Kharge calls Prime Minister Modi ‘poisonous snake’. What started with Sonia Gandhi’s ‘maut ka saudagar’, and we know how it ended, the Congress continues to plummet to new depths. The desperation shows Congress is losing ground in Karnataka and knows it," Malviya tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said the Congress party is unable to fight him politically, which is why they are resorting to such comments.
Speaking with news agency ANI, Bommai said, “There is a poison in the mind of Mallikarjun Kharge. The Congress party is collapsing, and such comments come out of desperation. The entire Congress party is unable to fight PM Modi politically, hence they are making such comments. The people of Karnataka will teach them a real lesson.