Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Thursday dared the BJP's "nationalistic luminaries" to spell out their stand on their Bhopal candidate Pragya Singh Thakur calling Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot.

She tweeted "The killers of Bapu a patriot? Hey Ram! Distancing yourself from your candidate is not enough. Nationalistic luminaries of the BJP, have the guts to spell out your stand."

Earlier the day, Thakur kicked up a major row by describing the Mahatma's assassin Godse as a 'deshbhakt'. Pragya Thakur recieved lot of criticism from her party members to which Thakur apologised late on Thursday night. "I apologise to the people of the country for my statements on Nathuram Godse. My statement was absolutely wrong. I have huge respect for the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi."

Nalin Kumar Kateel, a BJP MP from Karnataka also created a controversy by tweeting on thursday "Godse killed one, Kasab killed 72, and Rajiv Gandhi killed 17,000. You judge who is crueler in this?" BJP leader compared Mahatma Gandhi's assassin with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Pragya Thankur last month created a controversy when she said that IPS officer Hemant Karkare had died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as she had "cursed" him for torturing her. She had apologised for the controversial remark later and also retracted that statement.

The BJP distanced itself from her statement saying it did not agree with her, as "Mahatma Gandhi's killer cannot be a patriot"