BENGALURU: After the 'welcome to 40 per cent CM' billboard put up by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) at Hyderabad recently, the Congress party in Karnataka has launched a poster reading 'Paycm' with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's face on it.
On Wednesday morning, the walls of sensitive areas of Bengaluru, including that of chief minister Basavaraj Bommai's official residence on Race Course road, were stuck with posters with Bommai's visage along with a QR code 'paycm 40 percent accepted here, scan this code to make the CM pay for corruption'. They were similar to electronic wallet Paytm's advertisements.
When scaned, the code redirects to a web portal of the Congress party, launched recently to receive complaints against the CM.
The posters on the walls of CM's residence were removed immediately after the matter came to the notice of the authorities, But, they remained on the walls and dustbins of Queens road and Jayamahal area.
City Police Commissioner CH Pratap Reddy on Wednesday said that the police are on the hunt for those who have created a nuisance by pasting the Paycm posters. "The Central division police have already registered a case under the Public Places Disfigurement Act," he said.
The commissioner has instructed all the DCPs to check for such posters in their divisions and to register cases. “If the posters are found elsewhere, the concerned police will file a case. The police have also checked the CCTV footage of a hotel where the posters were found,” the commissioner told the media.
The Chief Minister dubbed it a 'pseudo campaign', which not only maligned his image but also of Karnataka.
"It is a systematic conspiracy to spoil my name and also Karnataka. I have directed the officials concerned to book a case. We will get it investigated to find out the people behind it," Bommai told reporters here.
"This is a baseless campaign in social media. Everyone knows how to do such things. Also, people know who is running the campaign. These are pseudo campaigns, which have intensified only recently. This has no value," he added.
The Chief Minister said he is hurt because more than him, Karnataka is getting a bad name due to such a campaign. "So, we have decided to put a brake on such activities," Bommai said.
Apparently, the Congress party's communication wing led by former minister and MLA Priyank Kharge was allegedly involved in the campaign to embarrass the government. " It is not a personal attack but we have launched a campaign based on the talks on the public domain about corruption", Priyank Kharge told reporters.
Reacting strongly, the BJP national general secretary C T Ravi alleged that the campaign is part of the Congress party's tool kit. " The attempt to tarnish the government started sometime back and if they have evidence about 40 per cent commission, let them lodge a complaint with the Lokayukta which is established now," he suggested.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh alleged that the Congress party has launched the campaign by stooping to a low level in order to cover up the scams it had indulged in when in power including the recruitment of teachers.
Reacting to the posters, the BJP has posted a similar poster with a QR code on social media with the visages of both the leader of opposition Siddarmaiah and the KPCC president D K Shivakumar alleging that they had looted the state of Karnataka when in power. "Scan this to remove this duo from Karnataka", it read.
Meanwhile, the Aam Admi Party(AAP) Karnataka clubbed both the posters to create its own with 'paycm 40 per cent accepted here, pay X cm 20 per cent accepted here' slogan.
With inputs from PTI, Devaraj B Hirehalli and Praveen Kumar