India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fired back at former Karnataka state chief H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday over his comments about Home Minister Amit Shah.
Kumaraswamy linked Shah to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels over the weekend when the minister visited the state.
"The fact that BJP-Bari Bootatike Party (A party full of hypocrisies) is a party of liars was made evident by your yapping lies. Amit Shah, you are a political chameleon! This is the true face of your party. You're a reincarnation of Joseph Goebbels. You're disgraceful," Kumaraswamy tweeted.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah (R) gestures after voting to elect the next Indian president at Parliament House in New Delhi on July 18, 2022.
© AFP 2023 PRAKASH SINGH
In response, BJP's Tejasvi Surya, a parliamentarian from Karnataka's capital city Bengaluru, termed Kumaraswamy's statement as "political frustration" over what he claimed would be the Janata Dal (Secular) Party's impending loss in the upcoming state polls.
"The unparliamentary word used by HD Kumaraswamy for Union Home Minister Amit Shah reflects his political frustration. JDS has already become an endangered party. After polls, JDS will (become) extinct from Karnataka," Surya told reporters in Gujarat, Shah's home state.
Alongside the Indian National Congress Party, Kumarawamy's JDS is one of two main opposition parties in Karnataka: in the 224-member state assembly, the BJP has 120 lawmakers while Congress and the JDS have 72 and 30 legislators, respectively.
They are hoping to wrest control of the state legislature from the BJP in assembly elections that will be held in the coming months.
Shah's recent visit to the state was reportedly to review his party's preparations for the crucial vote. The minister has often dubbed Karnataka as BJP's gateway to southern India.