Rahul Gandhi enjoys Nandini ice cream amid row over Amul's entry in Karnataka | Video

As a political slugfest has flared up in Karnataka ahead of state's assembly election over Amul's entry into Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi, and other Congress leaders were seen relishing ice creams at a Nandani milk parlor in Bengaluru's JP Nagar on Sunday. A video shared by news agency ANI, showed the former MP, along with state party chief DK Shivakumar and general secretary KC Venugopal at the store.

Gandhi, who returned to Kolar for the first time since his controversial 2019 speech, which ultimately led to his disqualification as an MP, also tweeted a picture of him at the outlet, and wrote: “Karnataka’s Pride - NANDINI is the best!”.

Earlier, Shivakumar had visited a Nandini store during an election campaign and shopped for milk products. He also said that the brand is a symbol for the self-esteem of Karnataka’s farmers.

“Visited Hassan's Nandini store today and bought milk products. The BJP government is trying to hijack the Nandini brand which is a symbol of self-esteem of our farmers and Kannadigas. But let the BJP government remember this, Kannadigas will never sell their self-respect,” the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president had said.

The political drama unfolded in the southern state after Gujarat-based dairy giant Amul announced that its products will soon be available in Bengaluru leading to a war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata party, and the Opposition. The opposition says the Nandini brand would come under threat if the large Gujarat brand enters the state market. Meanwhile, the saffron camp has alleged that Congress is just trying to gain political mileage out of this issue.