custom-ads

Rain-battered Bengaluru turns ammo for TRS to ridicule ‘double engine sarkar’ BJP slogan

The saffron party is looking to turn the Munugode bypoll into a TRS-vs-BJP battle to set the tone for the Telangana Assembly election.

South First Desk

Published Sep 05, 2022 | 2:34 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 05, 2022 | 6:02 PM

Entire areas flooded in parts of Bengaluru due to heavy rains on Sunday night. Photo: Twitter/@amitwadkar4

Entire areas flooded in parts of Bengaluru due to heavy rains on Sunday night. Photo: Twitter/@amitwadkar4

Visuals of rain-battered Bengaluru, inundated roads, overflowing lakes, flooded homes, tractors and boats pressed into action, and traffic piled for kilometres are flooding social media.

The situation is such that last week the city’s Outer Ring Road Companies’ Association wrote to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, asking him for help and claiming that a single day’s rain had cost them ₹225 crore in revenue.

While heavy rains and poor infrastructure are crippling Bengaluru, the plight of Bengalureans has turned into a tool of political ridicule.

The JD(S) and the AAP were quick to take swipes at the ruling BJP over the matter.

Now, the issue has crossed the state border, and others are jumping onto the bandwagon.

It is no secret that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) — the ruling party in Telangana — and the BJP are engaged in a battle of political one-upmanship.

While Union ministers and BJP leaders are looking to claim credit for schemes partly funded by the Central government, the TRS is countering the BJP’s moves with powerful retorts.

All this political tug of war is building up to the Munugode bypoll and eventually the scheduled Assembly elections in Telangana, where the BJP is striving to leave the Congress behind.

Given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visits to Kerala and Karnataka, hailed the “double engine sarkar” model, the plight of Bengaluru — the capital city of the BJP-ruled Karnataka — became ammo for the TRS to ridicule the saffron party’s claims.

The “Double Engine Government” is a slogan the BJP has used to suggest that with it at the state level and the Centre, development and growth will be achieved twice as fast.

Official accounts of the TRS social media cell, as well as leaders of the party, have now taken to Twitter to mock the BJP using Bengaluru as a “case in point” for its “double engine government” claims.

Soon enough, workers of the TRS took the cue and posted several tweets calling out the “double engine sarkar” claim.

The campaign comes as a move to punch holes into the BJP’s go-to slogan and promise of double growth.

Bengaluru’s rainy woes have been turned by the TRS into a political display of the BJP’s alleged failed governance.

Meanwhile, even as the TRS handles mocked the BJP’s slogan, Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao said no Indian city — including Hyderabad — was immune to the disastrous consequences of climate change.

Follow us