Cong Targets BJP, Demands Expulsion of Basangouda Yatnal for Calling Sonia Gandhi ‘Vishkanya’

The Congress on Friday hit at the BJP demanding expulsion of its leader Basangouda Patil Yatnal for calling Sonia Gandhi a “vishkanya”.

Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka and its leaders have lost their mental as well as political balance, asserting that Yatnal’s remarks are the “worst kind” of sacrilege and abuse against Gandhi at the “instance of Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai”.

“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. They have lost all sense of propriety, political balance and even a remote iota of decency and decorum,” he said in a statement.

“Instructed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and supported by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, BJP leader and Modi Ji’s personal favourite Basangouda Patil Yatnal has stooped to the lowest by calling UPA chairperson and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi as “Visha Kanye” and “Agent of China and Pakistan”,” Surjewala said.

The “vishkanya” remark against Gandhi by Yatnal, who is the Bijapur MLA and former minister, at a poll rally comes a day after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the a poisonous snake.

Campaigning in Karnataka for the assembly polls is in full swing and the Congress seeks to wrest power from the BJP in the state. Karnataka is the only southern state where the BJP is in power.

Prime minister Narendra Modi is set to begin his campaign in Karnataka on Saturday with a series of public meetings.

Top Congress leaders Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are already campaigning in the coastal poll bound state.

Referring to Yatnal’s remarks, Surjewala said they are the “worst kind” of sacrilege and abuse being hurled upon Gandhi and the Congress leadership at the “instance of Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai”.

“The BJP leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have made a profession of abusing the Nehru Gandhi Family. PM Modi himself has, in the past, called Sonia Gandhi as “Congress Ki Vidhwa” and even used filthy language like calling her “Jersey Cow”,” the AICC general secretary in-charge for Karnataka said.

Such language hurled at Sonia Gandhi, who is the wife of a former prime minister who was martyred for the country, reflects the “absolutely debased and undignified character” of the BJP and its leadership, Surjewala alleged.

The Congress leader claimed that the sad part is that all of this has the “tacit approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, J P Nadda and Basavaraj Bommai”.

“If Prime Minister has even an iota of decency or dignity, he should immediately expel Basangouda Patil Yatnal from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“Otherwise, it will be proved that the debased, ugly and deranged remarks being made by Yatnal against Sonia Gandhi are at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai,” he said.

“We also demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai should tender an unconditional public apology to Sonia Gandhi as also to the Congress leadership,” the Congress leader said.

Congress General Secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal tweeted, “Every election, they hurl new abuses to insult Smt. Sonia Gandhi ji, who has led her entire life with utmost dignity and grace. BJP continues to stoop to new lows, with their filthy language against our leaders. Modi ji, do you endorse these words? Yadha raja thada Praja.”

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)