Soon after Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted about the Information Technology’s contribution of Karnataka and quoted figures following the release of his party’s poll manifesto in the State , the BJP took a dig at him saying the Congress leader is either “mathematically challenged or lying” as the money quoted by him is close to 10 times of the state’s budget.
“Dear Rahul, read your tweet on Congress manifesto for Karnataka. You are either mathematically challenged or lying, as usual. Quick tutorial: IT contribution at $300Bn is approx 9.6x of the Karnataka state budget, which is 2,09,181 cr for FY 2018-19 (approx 31Bn),” BJP’s IT department in-charge Amit Malviya said in a tweet.
His response came after Gandhi tweeted a graphic on Congress manifesto for Karnataka and said it captures the ‘Mann Ki Baat’ of the state’s people and makes very specific commitments that the party intend to deliver on, including creating one crore new jobs over the next 5 yrs.
In the graphic, $300 billion is mentioned as IT contributions.
The Congress and the BJP are locked in a keen battle in the Karnataka assembly polls, scheduled for May 12, with the saffron party making an all-out bid to oust the Congress from power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to join the electoral battle and begin his whirlwind poll tour of the state from May first which may continue until May 10. The poll is on May 12 and the results to be announced on May 15.
BJP is yet to announce its poll manifesto and list election promises to woo voters in the battle which may go to any side. The contest is triangular with BJP and Congress being the main contestants and JDS posing as a Kingmaker if the poll throws up a hung assembly.