Karnataka Congress’s ‘corruption card’ ad cost us 40 seats, BJP tells court

The BJP claimed before the Karnataka High Court that their loss of 40 seats in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections was due to a "Corruption Rate Card" advertisement published by the Congress days ahead of the polls. Advocate Vinod Kumar M argued that the newspaper ads ran continuously for five days leading up to the elections and that this had cost the BJP 40 seats.

Kumar made this submission while defending the criminal defamation complaint registered against Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee by the BJP in 2023. The petitioners sought to quash the complaint. The special court handling the case asked Kumar if they would have won 40 seats without the advertisement, to which Kumar responded affirmatively.

He also stated that the defamatory articles, which contained no truth, were published three days before the elections, leaving the BJP with no opportunity to rebut the allegations. Senior Advocate Shashi Kiran Shetty, representing the petitioners, cited a previous judgment that quashed a similar complaint against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, arguing that the same relief should be granted in this case.

However, Kumar contended that the two cases were different, as the ads were published in newspapers. Justice M Nagaprasanna, who heard the case, dismissed the petitioners' argument, saying the matter was "only mudslinging" and questioning whether the petitioners would work on policies and welfare if allowed to continue such cases. The bench reserved its order.