Karnataka Elections: After 2+1 formula, PPP comes to play between PM & CM

The crucial Karnataka elections have seen many hashtags and abbreviations being thrown around.

After the 2+1 formula, it is now the ‘PPP’ abbreviation that’s trending.

And what is this PPP?

Taking a jibe at the Congress’ losing streak in the state assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said post-Karnataka polls the grand-old national party will become a regional one called PPP Congress – Punjab, Puducherry and Parivar Congress.

Modi, who addressed back-to-back rallies in Gadag, Tumakuru, Shivamogga and Mangaluru, mocked at the party saying “After May 15 (the day results of elections are declared), Indian National Congress will be reduced to PPP Congress-P for Punjab, P for Puducherry and P for Parivar (Family). He trained his guns on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his government, charging it was a “corruption tank” with a pipeline connected to New Delhi, “where the money reaches directly”.

He accused the Congress of “auctioning” party tickets and positions and even the chief minister’s post and recalled how a string of scams rocked the erstwhile UPA government.

“Congress has lost in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura…people across India have rejected the Congress,” Prime Minister Modi.

READ ALSO: Karnataka Elections: PM Modi and Siddaramaiah on 2+1 formula

On one to let go over Modi’s PPP remark, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday called BJP a “prison, price rise and pakoda” party.

“Dear Modiji, heard you spun a new abbreviation ‘PPP’ today. Sir, we have always championed the 3 Ps of democracy — ‘Of the People, By the People, For the People’,” Siddaramaiah said in a tweet shortly after Modi’s attack.

“While your party is a ‘Prison’, ‘Price Rise’ & ‘Pakoda’ party. Am I right, Sir? #NijaHeliModi,” he said.

“Nijaheli” in Kannada means tell the truth.

The chief minister also hit out at Modi’s attack regarding the increase in assets belonging to some Congress legislator/Minister.

“Sir, Your chief minister candidate took a bribe in a cheque. One of your Reddy friends G Janardhana Reddy conducted Rs 500 crore wedding for his daughter at the height of demonetisation”, Siddaramaiah tweeted.

He continued on with a flurry of questions for PM Modi: “your party president’s son, Jay Shah saw a 16000 times growth in the revenue of his company in two years,  why are diesel & petrol so expensive when international crude oil prices are half of what they used to be before 2014?,  instead of advising the youth to sell pakodas why don’t you focus on job creation, and why don’t you intervene in Mahadayi & call a meeting of three CMs?” 

In an indication of things to come, the day began with his handler attacking the BJP’s poll advertisements in various newspapers, saying, “The BJP is using its money power to splurge on advertisements. But the viciousness of these ads exposes their lies & hypocrisy. People of Karnataka know the difference between unsubstantiated corruption charges & real scams in which the BJP CM & his half a dozen colleagues went to jail.”