Facing Karnataka, Adani heat, BJP tries to turn the tables on Congress on corruption: ‘Hit them where it hurts’

This thrust on the battle against corruption comes at a time when the BJP is in a seemingly tough battle against the Congress in Karnataka, where the Opposition party has been highlighting the corruption charges against the ruling party’s state leaders, and amidst Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that his disqualification from the Lok Sabha is an attempt to silence him for questioning the alleged links between industrialist Gautam Adani and the PM. The ongoing Parliament session is on the verge of a wash-out amid gridlock over the Opposition’s demands for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue and protests against Rahul’s disqualification, and the ruling party’s demands for an apology from Rahul for comments he recently made in the UK about the state of Indian democracy.

Sources in the BJP said an intense campaign on corruption accusations against the Congress and the Opposition would be the highlight of the party’s outreach programmes in the coming days. For the BJP, disconnecting its image from corruption is critical as it has been on the back foot in Karnataka since last year over allegations of graft.

Senior party leader K S Eshwarappa resigned from the government last year after being accused of taking a bribe to clear pending bills. The allegations against him came to the fore after a contractor died by suicide in April 2022 — the BJP leader was exonerated by the police a few months later — and led the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association to accuse state ministers of demanding bribes to get work done. This prompted the Congress to come up with a war cry against “40 per cent commission” under the BJP government.

The same month, Lingayat religious leader Dingaleshwara Swami of the Balehosur Mutt alleged that government officials had sought a 30 per cent commission from mutts to release funds. Congress MLA Priyank Kharge last month alleged that the Basavaraj Bommai government facilitated a scam in molasses export while the latest corruption case to hit the government is the one against senior MLA Madal Virupakshappa, whose son has been arrested for bribery. Last week, hours after the Karnataka High Court dismissed Virupakshappa’s bail application, Lokayukta police officials arrested the legislator.

The corruption charges hit the Karnataka BJP at a time when senior party leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, promised a corruption-free government in the state. In an attempt at damage control and to change the narrative, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday alleged that the Congress used contractors to level allegations against the ruling party but failed to file anything in the court or prove any of the “bizarre allegations”.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the BJP would remind the electorate about the Congress’s history in the fight against corruption. “Apart from the long illustrious track record of Congress corruption, it is to be reminded that it was Siddaramaiah who wanted to wind up the Lokayukta and the ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) but these two institutions have been strengthened under the BJP and acted even on a corruption charge against the BJP MLA’s son. The issue of corruption is a legitimate issue during this election and the BJP will show how the Congress has attempted to distract from its track record of corruption by levelling these wild allegations,” said the BJP leader.

He added, “As long as Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah are the faces of the Congress, we will keep reminding the people about the corruption that happened during the party’s rule.”

To turn the tables on the Opposition party, the state BJP has raked up a 2017 report on an alleged residential land scam during the tenure of former CM Siddaramaiah who was in power from 2013 to 2018. It reflects that the Congress’s intense campaign against the BJP on corruption has had an effect. “The party is already battling anti-incumbency feelings among voters. The stamp of corruption on the party is something the BJP has to shed or at least dilute. The BJP has to get dominance in the perception battle,” said a senior BJP leader familiar with developments in the Karnataka unit.

In the first episode of the “Congress Files”, the party used the images of Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to talk about the “lost decade 2004 to 2014”, a turn of phrase that Modi employed in February during his speech on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s speech. The video alleged that the money the Congress “looted” could have been utilised for so many useful areas of security and development. “Using this much amount, 24 INS Vikrant, 300 Rafale jets, and 1,000 Mangal Missions could have been made or purchased. But the country had to bear the cost of Congress’s corruption and it lagged in the race of progress,” said the video message, which also gave details of scams during the grand old party’s time in power. “Coal scam of Rs 1.86 lakh crore, 2G spectrum scam of Rs 1.76 lakh crore, MGNREGA scam of Rs 10 lakh crore, Commonwealth scam of Rs 70,000 crore, a bribe of Rs 362 crore in the helicopter deal with Italy, Rs 12 crore bribe for the Chairman of Railway Board.”

Summing up the party’s strategy, a BJP leader said, “Hit them where it hurts … The BJP has to remind the electorate about the massive corruption that took place during the Congress rule. That is the only way the graft charges looming over our party leaders could get overshadowed.”