Owaisi attacks Sonia Gandhi as she campaigns for ‘RSS man’ Shettar: ‘Didn't expect from you’

All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on former Congress president Sonia Gandhi as she campaigned for BJP turncoat Jagadish Shettar in poll-bound Karnataka. Addressing a rally in Hubbali, Owaisi questioned Congress's ideology and said he had not expected that Sonia Gandhi would campaign for a candidate belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

“Is this your secularism? Is this how you will fight Modi?” the AIMIM MP asked.

“Madam Sonia Gandhi ji, mujhe aapse ye ummeed nahi thi ki aap ek RSS ke aadmi ke liye campaign karne aayengi, Jagadish Shettar toh RSS se hai (Madam Sonia Gandhi ji, I didn't expect that you would campaign for an RSS man, Jagadish Shettar is from RSS),” Owaisi said.

“It is a matter of shame that Congress has failed in the ideological battle. And their jokers, servants, slaves accuse me,” he added, in an apparent reference to the allegations of being the B-team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Congress has fielded Jagadish Shettar from the Hubbali-Dharwad Central constituency, from where he had won the previous assembly on a BJP ticket. The grand old party has defended Shettar's induction claiming the former Karnataka chief minister is a “secular person” despite his links to the RSS.

Flanked on stage by Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Jagadish Shettar, Sonia Gandhi on Saturday held her first rally in three years where she attacked the BJP for spreading “hatred”.

"Neither Karnataka nor India can make progress without getting rid of the atmosphere of BJP's loot, lies, ego and hatred," Gandhi said in her first public rally in the poll-bound state, which votes on May 10.

The former Congress president said: “It is everyone's responsibility to strengthen our voice against this (BJP) government's dark rule.”