HUBBALLI: It all started with a series of tweets by minister B Sriramulu, “welcoming” the Bharat Jodo Yatra and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi in a witty way, accusing them of not doing anything for Ballari district. He also tweeted that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had not even had the courtesy to visit Ballari from where she won the Lok Sabha seat, but had resigned sitting in Delhi.
Sriramulu topped it with a Sunday visit to the Municipal Grounds in Ballari, where the Congress had held a rally the previous day. He took up a broom and started cleaning the ground as a mark of protest. He said the “Congress party is like trash” and he was cleaning the trash left behind.
The Congress did not take Sriramulu’s tweets lying down. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, during the Congress rally in Ballari on Saturday, stated that Sriramulu was a pedda (stupid) and that he need not explain to him about the grants given by the Congress to Ballari and Karnataka.
He also spoke of how the Ballari mining industry was set up by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and in later years, Sonia was responsible for bringing the thermal power station to Kudatini of Ballari district.
A Congress worker from Ballari claimed that the Congress organising committee for Bharat Jodo Yatra had made arrangements to clear up the banners, posters and other waste generated along the Yatra route. The local Congress unit pays the authorities concerned to clean up the grounds where events are held. “The cleaning act done symbolically by minister Sriramulu is on the same lines as right-wingers cleaning up by sprinkling cow urine,” said one worker.