Vijayapura: A day after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's controversial 'Modi a poisonous snake' jibe, Karnataka BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Friday asked whether Sonia Gandhi is Vishakanya and an agent of China and Pakistan.
"Once upon a time, America refused to give him a visa ... later they rolled out a red carpet and welcomed Modi and walked along with him keeping their hand on his shoulders. Now they are calling him a cobra (poisonous snake), and saying he will spew venom. Is Sonia Gandhi a vishkanya (venomous woman)," he said, addressing a public rally here.
Yatnal, a former Union Minister, also accused Sonia Gandhi of having worked with China and Pakistan as their agents.
Flaying Yatnal's comments, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said BJP's leaders have lost their mental and political balance.
Facing a complete rout in the assembly elections, 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.
Surjewala alleged that Yatnal has been instructed by PM Modi and supported by Bommai. Yatnal has stooped to the lowest by calling Sonia Gandhi as vishkanya agent of China and Pakistan.
This is the worst kind of sacrilege and abuse being hurled upon Sonia Gandhi and Congress leadership at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, he said.
BJP leadership and PM Modi have made a profession of abusing the Nehru Gandhi Family, Surjewala said.
"PM Modi himself has, in the past, called Sonia Gandhi as Congress Ki Vidhwa and even used filthy language like calling her Jersey Cow," he said.
The filth and muck being 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 said.
"The sad part is that all of this has the tacit approval of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, Shri Amit Shah, Shri JP Nadda and Shri Basavaraj Bommai," he said.
The character and dignity of PM Modi will be tested today. If the Prime Minister has even an iota of decency or dignity, he should immediately expel Yatnal from BJP.
Otherwise, it will be proved that the debased, ugly and deranged remarks being made by Yatnal against Sonia Gandhi are at the instance of the Prime Minister Modi and Bommai, Surjewala said.
The snake barb was made by Kharge who said: "PM Modi is a Poisonous snake ... Don't try to lick it to know whether it is a poisonous snake or not. If you lick it, (you are) dead."
The AICC President made these remarks in a public rally in Ron.
This triggered furious counterattacks from the BJP. Karnataka Chief Minister Basabaraj Bommai said that the poison is in the mind of Kharge.
Shortly after the public backlash, Kharge clarified that he was not referring to the prime minister, instead attacking BJP's ideology.
Karnataka votes on May 10 with results due three days later. This is the first big state election of 2023, with critical Assembly polls also due in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. (UNI)