rahul gandhi
Congress President Rahul Gandhi.Reuters

In a statement that is likely to create an uproar among Congress leaders, Saroj Pandey, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Durg in Chhattisgarh, has called Congress president Rahul Gandhi "mentally weak."

Pandey made the comment on Thursday, June 21, in response to Rahul's recent remark on the Coca-Cola's founder. During a Congress event at Talkatora Stadium in the national capital on June 11, Rahul had claimed that the founder of the cold drink company used to sell shikanji.

Apart from the Coca-Cola comment, Rahul had also claimed that global fast-food chain McDonald's used to run a 'dhaba.'

While addressing the media in Durg, the BJP leader said: "The kind of things he says is surprising. He is definitely trying to learn but there is an age to learn. A person who learns after the age of 40 cannot be called learned. Such a person is called mand-buddhi (mentally weak)." 

BJP leader Pandey is a record-holder for holding the post of a Mayor, MLA, and MP at the same time and was nominated for Guinness Book of World Records and Limca Book of Records. She also holds the record for being the longest-serving Mayor of Durg and has even won the Best Mayor award. 

Pandey's rise in Chhattisgarh's BJP wing has been phenomenal since she was elected to the state legislative assembly. A daughter of a school teacher from Bhilai, she was appointed as the national president of BJP Mahila Morcha in 2008. 

Her political rise has been often lauded as she does not hail from any political background and family political history. In March, she was elected to Rajya Sabha from Chhattisgarh.

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