Kharge remark on Modi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge stirred a hornet's nest after he called Prime Minister 'a poisonous snake.' Kharge, however, later clarified his statement but he had by then provided the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enough ammunition to face severe backlash.
While addressing a rally in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, the Congress chief said, "PM Modi is like a 'poisonous snake', you might think it’s poison or not. If you lick it, you’re dead..." The poll-bound state is scheduled for elections on May 10 and counting will be held on May 13.'
However, the Congress chief, in an attempt to damage control quickly clarified that he meant that 'BJP's ideology is 'like a snake'. "It wasn't meant for PM Modi, what I meant was BJP's ideology is 'like a snake'. I never said this personally for PM Modi, what I said was their ideology is like a snake and if you try to touch it, your death is certain," Kharge said.
But the damage was already done. The BJP, which was quick to react, not just demanded an apology from the Congress chief over his comments but also took a swipe at the 'dummy' Congress president. "Congress made Mallikarjun Kharge the party president but nobody considers him that, so he thought of giving a statement which is worse than that given by Sonia Gandhi...", Union minister Anurag Thakur said.
Terming that the Congress chief's mind has poison, Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai said, "There is a poison in the mind of Kharge. It's a prejudiced mind towards PM Modi and BJP. This kind of thinking comes because of desperation as they are unable to fight him politically and they are seeing that their ship is sinking... People will teach them a lesson."
"Mallikarjun Kharge is a senior leader and president of Congress. What does he want to tell the world? PM Narendra Modi is the PM of our country and the whole world respects him using such language for PM shows the level to which Congress has stooped. We want him (Kharge) to apologise to the country," BJP leader & Union minister Shobha Karandlaje said.
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