BENGALURU, MYSURU: Following the Income Tax raid on a contractor which unearthed Rs 42 crore in cash, and several others, the BJP has launched a poster war against the ruling Congress and directly targeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The BJP posted on X stating, “Karnataka CM — Karnataka Collection Master” with a picture of Siddaramaiah holding a briefcase. The post also targerted the Congress calling it “ATM Sarkara”. Another poster shows Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar amidst piles of cash with the caption, “Congress Bhagya… Scam 2023… ATM Sarkara”.
In another post tagging the Karnataka Congress unit, the BJP questioned how much would go to each of the five poll-bound states from the first target of Rs 1,000 crore. According to the BJP, Rs 300 crore is meant for Telangana Congress, Rs 100 crore for Mizoram, Rs 200 crore for Chhattisgarh, Rs 200 crore for Rajasthan and Rs 200 crore for Madhya Pradesh.
“The Congress has set a target of Rs 1,000 crore through commission and collection, but got caught before the money could be distributed”, the BJP said. In yet another post, the BJP posted a KBC-like question asking the full form of KPCC — Karnataka Pradesh ___ Congress.
BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh posted from his handle on X stating, “KPCC = Karnataka Pradesh Corruption Congress. YST, DKST separate”.
Reacting to the poster war by BJP, Chief Minister Siddaramiah said in Mysuru, “The party high command has not asked for a single penny and all the BJP’s allegations are false and unsubstantiated. We are not connected to the elections in the five states. Did we seek help from Congress units in other states for our election? There is no question of having to give money to anybody. The BJ is making baseless allegations”.
Further, the CM said contractors can’t be seen as siding with Congress or BJP. “I will say that contractor (Ambika Pathy) is a BJP man, but will anybody accept it?” he asked. “Has the Income Tax Department said the cash they seized belongs to the government? Have they made any allegations against the government? Income tax raids happen regularly and this was one such. Why should our government investigate the case? The BJP is politicising it”, he said.
The CM also admitted that the state was facing a shortage of 2,000 mW of power, but blamed the JD(S) and BJP stating that no additional power production happened during the tenure of the previous governments. “I have issued direction to purchase power from outside and asked sugar factories to raise power production. We will try to ensure minimal inconvenience for farmers.