National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Thursday attacked the BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, for terming Nathuram Godse, who assassinated M.K. Gandhi, a "patriot".
"If the killer of the father of the nation is a patriot does that make Mahatma Gandhi anti-national?" Abdullah said in a tweet. However, he did not name Thakur.
If the killer of the father of the nation is a patriot does that make Mahatma Gandhi anti-national?
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 16, 2019
Earlier on Thursday, Thakur said, "Nathuram Godse was a desh bhakt (patriot) and will remain so. People calling him a terrorist should introspect. They will be given a befitting reply in these elections."
However, the saffron party's Madhya Pradesh unit distanced itself from Thakur's statement.
"The BJP does not agree with her statement. The party will talk to her (and ask) under which circumstances she gave the statement. One who killed Mahatma Gandhi can't be a deshbhakt," PTI quotes state BJP media cell in-charge Lokendra Parashar as saying.
Pragya Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case of September 2008, got herself embroiled in a series of controversies after she was announced the BJP Bhopal candidate. Her comment that former Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare was killed due to her curse, as he had tortured her in custody evoked sharp reactions.
Thakur was pitted against the Congress stalwart Digvijaya Singh in Bhopal, where polling took place on May 12.
