Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi are poll bhakts: BJP leader

KOPPAL: Mocking

Congress president Rahul Gandhi

and party general secretary for east UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, BJP national joint general secretary (organisation)

BL Santhosh

termed the siblings “election bhakts”. Speaking at a meeting of BJP workers in Karatagi, Koppal late on Friday, Santhosh said Rahul and Priyanka turn devotees only during elections, but PM Narendra Modi is a genuine devotee.


Referring to the AICC chief wearing a dhoti to a temple in Wayanad recently, Santhosh said, “Rahul looked like a buffoon as he does not know how to wear it and could not walk properly. He was using two belts to hold the dhoti, whereas I have been wearing the dhoti since morning and I’m comfortable.’’ He said that though Priyanka is married, she was not sporting bindi since the past six months. “Suddenly, we see red vermilion on her forehead,” he said.

Santhosh also said that former CM Siddaramaiah’s aatma (soul) is in Koppal, in an indirect reference to the Congress leader’s defeat in the Lok Sabha constituency in 1991 and reports of his candidature this year.

Reacting to the comment, Siddaramaiah: “The BJP has become helpless as it knows it is losing. Yes, my aatma is everywhere in the state as I am the only one who has an aatma,” he added.

Santhosh’s recent poll meetings has raised a buzz in BJP circles of his possible elevation in the party after the Lok Sabha elections. Many in the BJP are aware that the 46-year-old nurtures ambitions of becoming the CM. Party insiders say Santhosh’s hopes are renewed after the BJP leadership made Yogi Adityanath and Devender Fadnavis the CMs of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, preferring them to mass leaders and old horses.