Congress’ PayCM campaign is targeting Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. (file)
Bangalore:
Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar today challenged the state government to take action against him and former CM Siddaramaiah for wearing “PECM” T-shirts, alleging that several party workers were made to wear the same T-shirt during the ‘Bharat Jodi Yatra’. Was booked to wear shirt.
“Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and I and other leaders wearing ‘PECM’ T-shirts will participate in the Bharat Jodi Yatra. Let’s see what the BJP will do,” Shivakumar said in Nanjangud.
He said that cases were registered against some Congress workers for wearing T-shirts with “Pay-CM” written on them during the march in Gundlupet.
“We are not afraid of it (cases),” he said.
On Saturday, a Congress worker was asked to remove a T-shirt bearing “PayCM” poster during Bharat Jodi Yatra and an FIR was also registered against him at Chamarajanagar police station.
“PayCM” is an aggressive campaign launched by Congress against Basavaraj Bommai government alleging massive corruption. The PayCM campaign seems to have started on September 21, when posters of CM Bommai surfaced in Bengaluru. These posters had a QR code that read “40 percent accepted here”.
Once scanned, the QR code will take people to the “40 percent commission government” website recently launched by Congress. People will be asked to register their complaints against the Chief Minister, if any.
The government has dismissed the allegations of Congress as politically motivated.
“Government is drowned in 40% commission. All sections including farmers are suffering. On one side there is corruption and unrest, on the other side there is problem of farmers and unemployment. An atmosphere of fear has been created among the people,” alleged Mr. Shivakumar.
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief accused the BJP of slander and baseless criticism as “our development is unbearable for it”. “The BJP is doing petty politics to divert the attention of the people. They are criticizing us even though it has dead rats on its plate.”
Speaking about the Yatra, Mr Shivakumar said that it is “not a party event but a people’s program that connects the minds”.
“We are trying to find answers to the problems and give courage to the worried people,” he said.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)