Randeep Singh Surjewala of the Congress declared at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress headquarters in Bengaluru where the party leaders gathered to celebrate the overwhelming win of the Karnataka assembly election that Nandini had now outwitted them as well as the Kannadigas. After Gujarat’s Amul announced the arrival of fresh milk and curd in Bengaluru in April — one month before the election — Nandini became a contentious political topic in the southern state. Given that Nandini is the state trademark of Karnataka, it led to a fight between Amul and Nandini and the BJP and Congress.
“Of course, we are aware that nothing in Karnataka can be finished without Nandini. The former chief minister Siddaramaiah and the president of the Karnataka Congress, DK Shivakumar, were among the politicians who received the sweets from Surjewala on Saturday, who also extended a box of candies to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
While the BJP said that Amul and Nandini were not in competition since Amul had a long history in the Karnataka market, the Congress made clear throughout the campaign that it supported the locally produced Nandini. While Rahul Gandhi indulged in Nandini’s ice cream while campaigning, Sonia Gandhi brought up the subject in her speech, saying, “The time is now to tell them (BJP) that they will not succeed here in their conspiracy to loot a good institution like Nandini (the cooperative dairy brand owned by the Karnataka Milk Federation), ignoring the interests of lakhs of farmers and milk producers.”
In Karnataka, the Congress won 136 seats, defeating the BJP’s 64 and the JD(S)’s 19.
