In the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly election, the state unit of the Congress has been coming up with rather innovative online and poster campaigns, especially about the “corrupt” Basavaraj Bommai government.
Whether it was the innovative 40% commission PayCM QR code campaign, which referenced the popular PayTM, or the ‘KiviMeleHoova’ flower-behind-the-ear slogan to convey that the BJP government was fooling the people, the Congress party’s tageting of Bommai has elicited a few chuckles.
But with the latest Congress campaign, the joke is now on the party itself!
With the BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa on the run after his son was caught red-handed accepting a bribe (and some ₹8 crore being subsequently found in their offices and homes), the Youth Congress came up with the idea of putting up MISSING posters in cities and towns all over the state.
The poster had a lot of details about Virupakshappa, including his height and age, and also mentioned his “last seen” location as the Chief Minister’s Office on 4 March. It appealed to the people to help the Karnataka Lokayukta find the missing Channagiri MLA — accused No 1 in the case of alleged bribery.
There was one problem though.
The poster asked people, in bold letters, to dial 100 in case they had any information about the missing MLA. And that suggests that the Congress youth wing is clearly not keeping abreast with the news.
The Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) helpline number is not 100 any more, but 112, with the Karnataka government having launched it on 1 November, 2019! The saving grace for the Congress youth wing? Calls to 100 are partially still being diverted to the new number.
