Poster war resumes in Madhya Pradesh ahead of PM Modi’s visit

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to election-bound Madhya Pradesh on June 27, the ‘corruption poster war’ involving top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the State has intensified though both parties deny being involved with putting up the posters.

On June 26, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to election-bound Madhya Pradesh, the ‘corruption poster war’ involving top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the State has intensified. 

Posters of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with the slogan “50% laao; phone pe kaam karaao” (‘bring 50% and get work done on a phone call’) were put up across the State, some even on cut-outs of Mr. Modi put up by the BJP as a welcome gesture for the Prime Minister.

Mr. Modi will be addressing a ‘Mera booth sabse majboot’ booth-level workers’ training programme in the State capital. He will also flag-off five new Vande Bharat Express trains.  

The development follows the events of June 23, when posters calling former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and current State Congress chief Kamal Nath “Wanted Commission Nath” were put up by unidentified persons in Bhopal on June 23. While the Congress had blamed the BJP, the latter had denied having had anything to do with the posters. 

In a role reversal of sorts on Monday, the Congress party officially distanced itself from the Mr. Chouhan’s posters put up with his image embossed on something resembling a QR code of a popular payments app and a the ‘50%’ message, in tune with the ‘PayCm’ and ‘40% sarkara’ jibes the party used successfully in recent Karanataka Assembly polls. 

“The anger of the people of Madhya Pradesh is on the rise. These posters are visible on the streets of Bhopal,” Congress spokesperson Piyush Babele tweeted, sharing the image of one of the posters in Bhopal.