Karnataka BJP State General Secretary and MLC Ravikumar on Monday said that dropping Pandit Nehru’s image from the government advertisement was “deliberate” as the first Prime Minister of India “caused” the partition.

Speaking to the reporters, Ravikumar said, “Dropping Nehru’s image in the advertisement was deliberate. Gandhiji had said that Congress should be dissolved after independence. However, Nehru did not dissolve the Congress.

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Due to all these reasons, we have dropped his picture from the advertisement.” “Nehru did not listen to Gandhiji and it caused the partition of the country. Therefore, his portrait has been intentionally left out in the government advertisement,” BJP State General Secretary N Ravikumar said on Sunday.

“During his reign, Tipu Sultan destroyed many temples and converted millions of people. Why did Congress put up anti-Hindu Tipu’s portrait?,” questioned the Karnataka MLC.

According to him, Congress leader Siddaramaiah is a “puppet” of Sonia Gandhi.

“Siddaramaiah is a puppet of Sonia Gandhi to get power. Sonia and Rahul tell him to sit down means sit down for him, stand up means stand up, and embrace means embrace,” said Ravikumar while criticising DK Shivakumar for embracing Siddaramaiah during Rahul Gandhi’s recent Karnataka visit.

His reaction came after Congress Leader Siddaramaiah demanded an apology from the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Somappa Bommai, for “insulting” the first Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Siddaramaiah also tweeted,” When we thought slavery ended with the British, @CMofKarnataka @BSBommai proved everyone wrong by showing that he is still a slave to @RSSorg. Not including #PanditJawaharlalNehru in the list of freedom fighters in today’s govt ad shows how low a CM can go to save his chair.”

In another tweet, the Congress leader said, “Savarkar, who pleaded with British officers to get himself released from the jail, gets position in the front row. But, Baba Saheb, who fought for freedom by being the voice of marginalized sections, gets placed in the last row. The blatant display of untouchability by @BJP4Karnataka. Sad.”

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President DK Shivakumar on Sunday demanded an apology from the Karnataka government for ignoring former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the state government’s advertisement for the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign.

In a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Shivakumar said, “You insulted Jawaharlal Nehru, the frontline fighter of the freedom struggle, the first Prime Minister of the country, the architect of the post-independence New India construction, in the government advertisement published in the newspapers on Sunday. You have made an unsuccessful attempt to distort history.”

Earlier, the Congress leaders had expressed concern over the issue of the disappearance of the portrait of the first Prime Minister Nehru and the tearing down of the portrait of Tipu Sultan in Bengaluru in connection with the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign.