After the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) mocked Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai with banners that said 'Welcome 40% CM' during BJP’s ‘Liberation Day’ celebrations recently, the Congress in Karnataka targetted the CM through a similar poster campaign.
On Wednesday, posters with the tagline 'PAY CM – 40% accepted here' with Bommai’s face inserted into a QR code were splashed across the city— on compound walls, transformers, and bus shelters. The QR code, when scanned, led users to a website – 40percentsarkara.com, created by the Congress to encourage citizens to report corruption. “Scan this QR code to make CM PAY for corruption,” said the poster.
The posters that cropped overnight, on a day when Congress legislative party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah was preparing to raise the issue of alleged corruption and the “40 commission” charge made by the state contractors’ association against Bommai government, irked the BJP and the chief minister.
A furious Bommai dubbed the campaign "a systematic ploy" to tarnish his name and the image of Karnataka. "It is a pseudo campaign, and anybody can start a campaign without providing any proof. People behind this campaign will be brought to book," the CM said.
The BJP leaders dared the Congress to provide evidence to substantiate their claims and demanded to know why the contractors who had met Siddaramaiah with the complaint are now silent.
Meanwhile, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Prathap Reddy swung into action and ensured that the posters were pulled down. Reddy told reporters that a complaint had been filed under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act 1981, and the persons responsible for the act would be apprehended.
The BJP took to social media to vent their anger and launched a social media poster campaign against Siddaramaiah and KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar, warning people against entertaining the duo, and calling them “Redo Siddaramaiah” and “ED DKS”, a reference to the allegations of illegal land de-notification and the ongoing probe by the Enforcement Directorate against the two senior Congress leaders respectively.
The saffron party made a QR code with the faces of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, urging people to scan the code to throw them out.
BJP MLC N. Ravikumar slammed the Congress party for the “distasteful” campaign, saying, “Asking people to pay for jobs using CM’s portrait is in bad taste. If people really want to pay, they should perhaps pay for Siddaramaiah’s cars and expensive watches. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Kumar had claimed that they had looted enough to last them for generations. The Congress campaign is undignified and unbecoming of a national party. It is shamelessness and lacks class. It was the Congress party that gave birth to corruption. The Congress regime had recruitment scams in the police department and in teacher recruitment too.”
BJP MLA P. Rajeev said the Congress, as the opposition party, should have cornered the ruling party inside the assembly or fought the ideological battle in a dignified manner instead of stooping so low. “The Congress resorting to a poster campaign across the city even though there is little evidence against the government is deplorable,” he added.
“This is a campaign motivated by the people who have realised that corruption is responsible for the poor condition of the roads and flyovers. Karnataka is today the most corrupt state in the country,” said Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad.
