NEW DELHI: Within hours of Karnataka CM
Siddaramaiah challenging BJP's
Yeddyurappa for an open debate, the latter accepted the challenge, saying that the Congress leader should use his Hublot watch to decide on the time of the debate.
The Hublot watch's reference was to an allegation levelled by BJP on Siddaramaiah earlier today. The saffron party had alleged that the chief minister received the watch as a gift for facilitating the operations of Vijay Eswaran's QI Group of Companies in the state.
Today, the war of words between the two leaders started when Siddaramaiah, in a tweet, challenged Yeddyurappa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an open debate.
"I have asked Yeddyurappa to join me in an open debate. PM Modi is welcome to join. I will speak extempore. They can bring paper," Siddaramaiah tweeted.
In the same tweet, the
Karnataka chief minister also took a dig at the BJP's leaders, PM Modi, Amit Shah and Adityanath, who have been aggressively campaigning for their party for the upcoming state elections to be held on May 12.
"Come on BSY let people see who they are voting for beyond the smokescreen created by hot air from Modi-Shah-Yogi team," Siddaramaiah added.
The challenge for an extempore debate was an apparent reference to PM Modi's swipe at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, earlier this month. The PM had challenged Rahul "to speak in any language" for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Congress-led government in the state without referring to a piece of paper. The PM's challenge came after Rahul had dared the PM to allow him to speak in Parliament for 15 minutes.
Hours later, Yeddyurappa responded with his own set of demands for the "open debate".
Reminding Siddaramaiah of his party's "involvement in corruption" and his government's "failures", the BJP leader, in a series of tweets, said that he would like to debate on the issue of Lokayukta, farmers' suicides, sand mafia, the economy of the state, women safety and other issues.
"I think your Hublot watch suggests you the right time to show up for a debate.
1. Do get Vijay Eswaran, your fugitive friend along.
2. Do carry the diary of L Govindaraju.
3. Let us also debate: Turning Lokayukta Powerless, Farmers’ suicides, Sand Mafia, Honest Officers' Transfer," Yeddyurappa tweeted.
The diary of Congress MLC L Govindaraju made headlines in 2017 after he had conceded in his disposition before the Income Tax authorities that entries in his diary recovered by the officials were linked to senior party leaders.
Terming Siddaramaiah model of governance "Model of (Anti) Development, Yeddyurappa concluded by asking the Congress leader to be ready to debate on state's economy as well.
"You've worked very hard in bringing this Model of (Anti) Development with:
Decreased:- Growth Rate (GSDP), the Growth rate of Per Capita Income, Spending on Education & Health. Increased:-Interest Payments, Borrowings, Debt burden, Crime, Corruption," Yeddyurappa added.
