Day before voting, Cong, BJP in social media war

Archrivals the Congress and the BJP continued to trade barbs on social media on Friday, a day before polling for the Assembly elections. Their chief ministerial candidates Siddaramaiah and B S Yeddyurappa, however, went mum.

Flush after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s blitzkrieg campaign, which the saffron party hopes will swing enough votes in its favour, former minister C T Ravi tweeted: “With BJP government at Centre as well as the state, Karnataka will witness rapid transformation in every sector to bring an abundance of prosperity for Kannadigas.”

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara used the colloquial ‘chill maadi’ to the BJP. “Karnataka is a progressive, forward-thinking state that is comfortable in 2018. You can’t take us back to 1818 with your regressive policies and beliefs,” he told the BJP in a tweet.

Ahead of the voting day, the BJP pushed out hashtags such as #BJPforInclusiveVikasa, #SarkaraBadlisiBJPGellisi and #CongDirtyCash. The Congress ran hashtags #CongressforNavaKarnataka, #KarnatakaWithCongress and #YeddyReddy420.

Fake letter

The elections have been fraught with fake news doing the rounds on social media. On Friday, a purported letter written by Water Resources Minister M B Patil addressed to the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was circulated widely. The letter dated July 2017 discusses the Lingayat religion issue and uniting minorities ahead of the polls. Patil dismissed the letter as fake in a tweet. “Siddaganga, Chitradurga, Kudalasangama, Taralabalu, Nagnur, Mathaji and all Lingayat Sri's have welcomed the Lingayat status,” he wrote, accusing the BJP and the RSS of spreading it.

BJP’s Ravi, however, predicted doom for the Congress for according 'religious minority' status to the Lingayat community. “Right from Siddaramaiah, who is staring at a defeat in Chamundeshwari and Badami constituencies, many Congis behind the division of Hindus are going to lose the Assembly elections.” He said separating Lingayats from Hindu religion “will provide suicidal for the communal Congress.”

At a press conference on Thursday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had defended the Lingayat religion decision.