BJP rakes up Siddaramaiah's late son, draws ire of Twitterati

A tweet by the official BJP Karnataka handle garnered criticism for its comments on Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah's son Rakesh, who died five years ago in Belgium.

Several social media users chided the saffron party for the 'insensitive' tweet made as a retort to Siddaramaiah's comment that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai may or may not inherit his father's qualities.

Siddaramaiah, responding to media queries in Mysuru on Wednesday, had cited the example of how Mahatma Gandhi's son became a drunkard, despite the former being a staunch advocate against alcohol consumption. The Congress leader said this when asked about the current chief minister inhering the leadership qualities of his father S R Bommai, who also served as CM.

"There are media reports that your elder son Rakesh was a heavy drinker. There were also reports of him assaulting the elderly in an inebriated state. Can we generalise to say this was a quality he inherited from his father?," BJP Karnataka said, tagging Siddaramaiah in the tweet.

Noting that the tweet was in bad taste, several social media users urged BJP Karnataka to take it down.

Congress MLA Priyank Kharge asked whether BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel approved of the tweet. "As Karnataka BJP have nothing to showcase even after two years of "Governance," they are resorting to sensationalism of yellow journalism of a deceased. How low will you stoop BJP? ....The difference between Hinduism & Hindutva is evident here," he said.

Several other Twitterati also criticised the statement. "Tweet is in bad taste! Very bad taste!" wrote one Vinay Kashyap.

"Every BJP fan should be ashamed of being a supporter looking at such ridiculous lowest level tweet by their party: Making value judgements about a person who isn't alive anymore, only to taunt the dead person's father. The new low in Karnataka & Indian politics!!," said Amarnath Shivashankar.