The state of Karnataka is all set to go to polls this year, and being one of the final Congress ruled states, it is expected that the elections will be a battle where each side gives their all. Here, the Congress would be desperately trying to maintain its relevance in national politics, and the BJP in turn might push towards trying and realising its “Congress mukt bharat” dream.
One of the main forces deployed by the BJP to ensure that is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Yogi has already been addressing packed rallies in the state, which included a rally in Hubbali where he made a strong statement about the Congress worshipping Tipu Suptan instead of Hanuman and Vijayanagar.
Possibly unnerved by Yogi’s posture, the official twitter account of Karnataka Congress, put out a tweet yesterday, attacking Yogi using some NCRB data:
https://twitter.com/INCKarnataka/status/949918036865138688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As seen above, the Congress’ tweet decided to portray a dismal governance record of the state contributing to 14.5% of all crimes against women and 12.4% of rape cases in the country.
Though, there was a slight problem with the data. These NCRB figures actually date back to 2016 when Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party was in power, who incidentally became an ally of the Congress during the 2017 Assembly elections in the state. Yogi only came to power in Uttar Pradesh, in March of 2017.
Incidentally during the UP election campaign, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had praised Akhilesh Yadav, which raises the question as to why was the party not revolted with the aforementioned data, during its ‘romance’ with the Samajwadi Party.
The twitter account of BJP Karnataka, soon picked up this angle and attacked the Congress:
https://twitter.com/BJP4Karnataka/status/949962976064258048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Twitter users too chided the Congress:
https://twitter.com/theskindoctor13/status/950038463423770624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/UVerekar/status/950226024511324160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/AmitShukla11272/status/950261133503381504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Yogi Adityanath later came up with a smooth reply:
https://twitter.com/myogiadityanath/status/950032486511337472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
After such a glaring self goal, it remains to be seen whether, the Congress would be more careful in its future attacks.