Between ‘snake’ and ‘maiden’ jibes: Karnataka poll campaign takes the usual ‘poisonous’ turn

As if determined to not disappoint the cynics, the figure of speech is having a wild run in the ongoing Karnataka Assembly poll campaign. The controversies have taken a serpentine turn; the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has been accused of calling PM Narendra Modi “a poisonous snake” (a comparison that, he later clarified, was used for the BJP, not the PM), while Karnataka BJP MLA and former union minister Basanagouda Patil Yatnal used the metaphor of “vishkanya” (poison maiden) for the former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. 

Unsurprisingly, the recent spotlight on the defamation proceedings against a prominent Opposition leader for his alleged verbal excess in a poll campaign speech hasn’t been a deterrent.