BJP takes a dig at ‘socialist’ Siddaramaiah after RTI reply reveals CM spends Rs 56 crores on ads

According to a Right to Information (RTI) reply, the Congress government in the southern state has spent at least Rs 56 crores to highlight the achievements of CM Siddaramaiah.

Bengaluru, April 17: If advertisement budget could have won elections, then incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah is likely to win the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. We have taken the liberty to predict the Congress government's win in the upcoming elections because CM Siddaramaiah and his party colleagues are probably under the impression that by spending "vulgar" amount of money on advertisements one could easily win elections. But that is not the case always, as we have seen in the past across the country.

According to a Right to Information (RTI) reply, the Congress government in the southern state has spent at least Rs 56 crores to highlight the achievements of CM Siddaramaiah. The advertisement amount, according to a report by News18, has been spent in a period of 100 days from December 1 to March 20 before the model code of conduct came into being in late March in the state.

Now, the CM is facing flak from various quarters and rightly so for mindlessly "wasting" the mind-boggling amount of money which actually belongs to the taxpayers. Taking a dig at the Congress government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has termed the advertisement blitz as "criminal waste of tax payers' money".

The BJP in a tweet has sarcastically attacked "socialist" Siddaramaiah for spending an exorbitant amount of money on advertisement.

"'Socialist' Siddaramaiah spends 56 crores in 110 days on ads! Remember when Siddaramaiah denied funds to Nada Habba Dasara citing cash crunch? Socialism & his fake Kannada bogie, both fall flat with this RTI that has revealed Siddu's exorbitant spending on ads #SidduAdSplurge," tweeted the BJP with a news clip on the spending spree of the CM.

Siddaramaiah, who is hoping to become the CM of Karnataka for the second time, was earlier with the Janata Dal (Secular). The CM always takes pride in being a socialist who comes from a humble background. However, in the last five years on several occasions, Siddaramaiah's claims of being a "socialist" have fallen flat especially after photographs showed the CM flaunting expensive imported watch during public meetings.

In the recent few weeks, Bengaluru and several parts of the state have seen the CMs hoardings and billboards almost in every public place. All the advertisement materials attempted to highlight the Congress government's achievements in the last five years under Siddaramaiah.

Now, it needs to be seen whether the voters are impressed by the CM's smiling pictures on posters. In March, the Election Commission (EC) announced the polling date for the Karnataka elections. The elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will take place on May 12. The results of the elections will be declared on May 15.