KOPPAL: On a day Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a poisonous snake, controversial BJP MLA from Vijayapura, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, questioned if Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was a ‘poison maiden’ (vishakanya) and accused her of being an agent of China and Pakistan.
Addressing an election rally at Yelburga in Koppal district on behalf of party candidate Halappa Achar, Yatnal said Kharge had spoken disrespectfully about and pointed out that he had lost the previous Lok Sabha election after speaking ill about the PM. “Siddaramaiah says Lingayats are corrupt, so does that mean the entire community is corrupt? The Congress has no moral right to comment on Lingayats”, he said.
Daring the Congress to annnounce a Lingayat as CM, Yatnal challenged Congress state president D K Shivakumar to undo the reservation that was announced by the BJP government last month. The Congress is past its expiry date and their promises have no value, he said while using an expletive in Kannada.
Targeting Rahul Gandhi, Yatnal said he is a ‘mad man’. “Wherever Rahul Gandhi visits, the Congress collapses. He had recently come to Vijayapura and I won that day itself. He is our star campaigner”, he said.
Reacting to the statement in Bengaluru on Friday, state Congress president D K Shivakumar demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai should apologise for Yatnal’s remarks. “Mr Yatnal, what will happen to your tongue, one can’t say. The Congress will not tolerate my mother (Sonia Gandhi) being called a poison maiden”, he thundered. He aso demanded that Yatnal should be expelled from the party.