Twitter war between Yogi Adityanath and Siddaramiah sets Karnataka polls tune

A war on Twitter has broken out between Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah and his Uttar Pradesh (UP) counterpart Yogi Adityanath over starvation deaths and deaths of farmers in UP and Karnataka respectively.

Yogi was on a day's visit to Bengaluru on Sunday where he addressed a public meeting. Political pundits link Yogi's visit with elections in Karnataka slated for later this year.

In his tweet, the Karnataka CM welcomed Yogi to the state but said he should visit Indira Canteen and ration shops. He suggested this in view of the reported starvation deaths in UP.

The Indira canteen, a replica of Amma canteen started by Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, provides hygienic nutritious food like Idli and rice. It is very popular because of its low price. Breakfast costs Rs 5 while lunch and dinner come for Rs 10 each. These canteens are so popular that even the BJP has proposed such canteens if it comes to power.

Yogi reacted by tweeting: “Thank you for the welcome @siddaramaiah ji. I heard number of farmers committing suicide in Karnataka was highest in your regime, not to mention the numerous deaths and transfer of honest officers. As UP CM I am working to undo the misery and lawlessness unleashed by your allies.”

These tweets drew largescale response from the supporters of Yogi and Siddaramiah as they tried to prove which state is the best. But this exchange of tweets made it clear that sparks would fly in the election campaign. Yogi’s post was retweeted 9456 times and had 18.3k likes while Siddaramaiah’s tweet was retweeted 2213 times and has 3891 likes.

After the CMs, even the state units of the Congress and the BJP joined the twitter war. The Kanataka Unit of Congress, through its twitter handle @INCKarnataka, highlighted the increase in crime rate in UP by citing NCRB data.

BJP’s Karnataka unit (@BJP4Karnataka) responded by saying: “SP and BSP who ruled the state for last 14 years and supported the UPA between 2000-14. Do you realize that Yogi is CM for only 10 months and things are already improving. Being out of power for so long must be hard.”