Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday, seemingly threw shade at the party’s Karnataka unit chief D K Shivakumar for his belief in ‘superstitions’.
Reportedly, the incident occurred during a Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) event on the occasion of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday.
Speaking on the occasion, Kharge said that there was no place for superstitions when it came to Nehru. “Shivakumar ji, he had no place for superstition,” the senior leader repeated as if to point it out to the KPCC chief, with the audience bursting into laughter.
The former union minister further said that the late former prime minister believed in scientific thinking and that is why India’s flag has an Ashoka Chakra and not a Sudarshan Chakra, as Emperor Ashoka united the whole of India.
It is said that DKShi places heavy importance on astrology and, apparently, his candidate of choice for the recently concluded Raja Rajeshwari Nagar bypoll was based on advice from an astrologer. Kusuma Hanumantharayappa, DKShi’s choice of candidate lost with a great margin against the BJP’s candidate Munirathna Naidu.
Calling for the Congress leaders to “work together” against the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Kharge said, “We may chant Nehru’s name saying he was the first Prime Minister. What’s more important is right now is how he brought the nation and the people together. The problem is that one person says one thing and another says another thing. We are not united. So, I ask everybody, with folded hands, to work together in the interest of the party and our ideology.”
He added that the Congress will not have any future if it does not stick to its ideology.
