The social media battle between the two major political parties in India - the BJP and the Congress - escalated today with the former getting back at the latter by calling its president Rahul Gandhi the "star campaigner" of the saffron party.
The BJP's response was in the reaction to Gandhi's tweet in which he poked fun at Amit Shah for a gaffe made by the BJP president when he sought to claim Karnataka's Siddaramaiah government as most corrupt but named his party's former chief minister Yeddyurappa instead.
"Now that the BJP IT cell has announced Karnataka elections, time for a sneak preview of our top secret campaign video," Rahul said in a tweet. "Gifted to us by the BJP President, our campaign in Karnataka is off to a fabulous start. He says Yeddyurappa ran the most corrupt Govt ever...True."
The BJP's response came nearly one and half hour later. "Oye Rahul, You prove your silliness by wanting to base your campaign on a slip of tongue! Btw, unlike you we have no secrets, we believe in complete transparency," BJP Karnataka said in a tweet. "Visit https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi to know our star campaigner, gifted to us by India's most corrupt dynasty. Cheers!"
It also tweeted a video clip of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah calling him "the undisputed king of slip of tongue moments."
Earlier, Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana Ramya went to town on Twitter over Shah's comment at a press conference earlier today in Karnataka.
"Who knew Amit Shah could also speak the truth - we all concur with you Amit ji B S Yeddyurappa is the most corrupt!," she tweeted.
In another tweet, Ramya said this was not the first time Shah had expressed such feelings towards Yeddyurappa.
Shah had said, addressing the media, "A Supreme Court retired judge has said that if a comparison is made on corruption, then the Yeddyurappa government would get the number one award." Former BJP Karnataka chief Prahlad Joshi, also present at the conference, sought to nudge him by naming Siddharamaiah, the Congress chief minister in the state, and Shah promptly corrected himself.
"Er...Siddaramaiah government will be given the number one award," Shah said.
Shah is campaigning for his party in Karnataka for the May 12 Assembly elections, in which the BJP seeks to upstage the Congress.
The BJP has already put its weight behind Lingayat leader Yeddyurappa by projecting him as its chief ministerial candidate.
(With PTI inputs)
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