Senior Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad mocked the health condition of BJP president Amit Shah, saying he contracted swine flu since his party made an alleged bid to destabilise the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka.
The remark by Hariprasad, a Rajya Sabha MP and Congress general secretary, sparked an angry reaction from the BJP with the party's Karnataka unit calling him a "rogue" and described his remarks as "shameless" that showed his party's "culture" and his "mental stability".
The BJP also requested Congress president Rahul Gandhi to admit Hariprasad to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences(NIMHANS) in Bengaluru for treatment.
"As a few legislators have already come back, Amit Shah is shaken and has got fever. It is not a normal fever. It is swine flu," Hariprasad said in remarks made in Kannada in Bengaluru.
"You should know that if you try to destabilise the Karnataka government, not just swine flu, you will get vomiting and dysentery also," he added.
Shah was Wednesday admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for swine flu treatment.
"I have been diagnosed with swine flu for which the treatment is underway. With God's grace and good wishes from all of you, I will recover soon," Shah had tweeted in Hindi.
According to BJP's media head Anil Baluni, Shah is doing well and will be discharged in a day or two.
Hariprasad made the remarks at a party protest against the alleged attempt by the BJP to dislodge the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka by allegedly luring the ruling coalition MLAs.
