'Without Nandini...': Congress' 'sweet' message at Karnataka victory celebration

To celebrate the sweeping victory in Karnataka, the Congress chose Nandini sweets and made sure the message is sent.

Nandini has now outwitted them along with all Kannadigas, Congress's Randeep Singh Surjewala said at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress office in Bengaluru where the party leaders assembled to celebrate the resounding victory of the Karnataka assembly election. Nandini became an election issue in the southern state after Gujarat's Amul announced the launch of fresh milk and curd in Bengaluru in April -- a month before the election. It triggered an Amul vs Nandini and the BJP vs Congress slugfest as Nandini is Karnataka's home brand. Read | What Karnataka poll result means for Modi, BSY, Siddaramaiah, Kharge, Deve Gowda

It was Nandini's sweets at the celebration at Karnataka's party office in Bengaluru party office.

"Of course, we know that without Nandini, nothing can be complete in Karnataka. Nandini has now outwitted them along with all Kannadigas," Surjewala said on Saturday extending a box of sweets to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge who then distributed the sweets among other leaders including former chief minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar.

While the BJP claimed that there was no Amul versus Nandini as Amul has been there in the Karnataka market for a long time, the Congress in the campaigning stressed its support for homegrown Nandini. While Rahul Gandhi, on his campaign trail, had Nandini's ice cream, Sonia Gandhi in her campaign speech referred to the issue as she said: "The time has come now to tell them (BJP) that they will not succeed here in their conspiracy to loot a good institution like Nandini (Karnataka Milk Federation’s cooperative dairy brand), ignoring the interests of lakhs of farmers and milk producers."

The Congress secured a thumping majority in Karnataka winning 136 seats against BJP's 64 and JD(S)'s 19.