Bihar and bidi not official response of Congress: KPCC leader

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 5 (IANS) Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president and senior legislator A.P. Anil Kumar on Friday said that a social media post, which appeared on its official X handle comparing Bihar with ‘bidis’ and subsequently deleted, was not an official response.

The controversy surfaced from a now-deleted post by @INCKerala that read: “Bidis and Bihar start from B. Cannot be considered a sin anymore.”

Soon after deleting it came another post which read, “We see that our jibe at Modi's election gimmick with GST rates is being twisted. Our apologies if you felt hurt,”.

Speaking to IANS, Kumar said the general norm for those manning the social media account is that every post gets cleared officially.

“The one that appeared and subsequently removed had no official clearance. Hence, this is not the official one, and when it came to notice, it was removed instantly. An apology has also been made. The party will definitely look into what happened,” said Kumar, who is also a former two-time State Minister.

It was on Friday when Kerala and Keralaites were in the midst of celebrating the harvest festival of Onam that this controversial post triggered strong backlash from NDA leaders in Bihar.

Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary condemned the remark, saying, “They have first insulted the mother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and now they are insulting the entire Bihar. This is the real character of Congress, which has been exposed before the nation.”

JD(U) MLC and chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said the INDIA bloc has turned the insult of Bihar into its political identity.

“Sometimes bidi, sometimes taunts on Biharis. Bihar is intelligent, belongs to Buddha, Sita, and Sufi saints. Tejashwi Yadav must answer — is Bihar a synonym of bidi? The public will reply through EVMs,” he stated.

Union Textile Minister Giriraj Singh also lashed out at the Congress leadership, remarking, “The brainless Rahul’s malicious Congress always misbehaves with Bihar… their destruction is certain.”

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said, "...If anything objectionable has been said about Bihar, then an apology must be made."

--IANS

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