Bengaluru will be India’s best city: DK Shivakumar’s challenge to KTR

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar and Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao inked a challenge on Monday.

At stake is the title of India's best city and the suitors are Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

“…my friend, I accept your challenge. By the end of 2023, with Congress back in power in Karnataka, we will restore the glory of Bengaluru as India’s best city,” Shivakumar said on Twitter.

He was responding to Rao’s tweet in which the Telangana minister took potshots at Bengaluru’s infrastructure when compared with Hyderabad’s.

Responding to Shivakumar, Rao said: "Anna, I don’t know much about politics of Karnataka & who will win but challenge accepted. Let Hyderabad & Bengaluru compete healthily in creating jobs for our youngsters & prosperity for our great nation. Let’s focus on infra, IT&BT, not on Halal & Hijab."

On March 31, Rao had asked serial entrepreneur Ravish Naresh to “pack your bags & move to Hyderabad”. This is after Naresh complained about bad roads, power cuts, poor water quality and bad footpaths in HSR Layout and Koramangala where many startups are based. "Many rural areas now have better basic infra than India's Silicon Valley,” Naresh, the cofounder of Khatabook and Housing.com, said in a tweet on March 30.

In Congress circles, Shivakumar’s tweet is seen as his attempt to become the face of the party in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections and bolster his chief ministerial prospects.

Rao's rows

This isn’t the first time Rao has been critical of Bengaluru. In December 2021, after comedian Munawar Faruqi’s show was cancelled in Bengaluru, Rao extended an “open invitation” to him and fellow stand-up artist Kunal Kamra. Bengaluru “claims to be a cosmopolitan city, but takes comedy too seriously”, Rao had said.

In another tweet on Monday, Rao said the developments taking place in Bengaluru were "strange and sad". He was responding to a tweet by entrepreneur Shruti Chaturvedi, who said at least two Muslim entrepreneurs had moved out of Bengaluru due to "erratic regulations" and "growing religious hate".

Rao termed as "shame" the goings-on in Karnataka and that it "...ruins our reputation as a nation in attracting investments".

On Sunday, Karnataka’s IT Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said Bengaluru’s fame did not dependent on its roads. “We're all Indians first. We're not intolerant of the progress of our neighbouring states. Every state has its own uniqueness. We firmly believe in entire India growing as one country,” he added.

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