Ahead of the assembly polls in the five states, a poster war has erupted between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress party with both the factions trading barbs against each other. On Wednesday, the Congress party released a poster on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi captioned "The Biggest Liar" and another calling him a "Jumla Boy" who was "going to hit the election rally soon".
In a sharp retort, the saffron party on Thursday shared a poster of Rahul Gandhi with several heads and with the title "Bharat Khatre Mein Hai - A Congress party production. Directed by George Soros".
"The new age Ravan is here. He is Evil. Anti Dharma. Anti Ram. His aim is to destroy Bharat," the BJP said on X.
BJP’s poster evoked strong responses from Congress which termed it as "unacceptable" and "downright dangerous".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said that the poster was intended to incite and provoke violence against the former Congress chief whose father and grandmother were assassinated by forces that want to divide India.
"What is the real intent of an atrocious graphic portraying Rahul Gandhi as Ravan by the BJP's official handle? It is clearly intended to incite and provoke violence against a Congress MP and a former President of the party, whose father and grandmother were assassinated by forces that want to divide India," he said in a post on X.
"It is one thing for the PM to give evidence daily of being a pathological liar and of suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder. But for him to get his party to produce something this obnoxious is not just completely unacceptable, but is downright dangerous," Ramesh said.
"We will not be intimidated," he asserted.
Later the Congress leader shared a cartoon on X where Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru were shown as 10 heads of Ravana and showed Savarkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee as Ram and Laxman, aiming at them with a bow and arrow.
"This cartoon was published in 1945 in Leading magazine, whose editor was Nathuram Godse. One of those who shoots arrows is Savarkar. Gandhi and Congress have always been their target, but neither were they afraid then, nor are they afraid today, nor are they going to be afraid in the future," Ramesh said on X along with the poster.
Hitting back at the saffron party, Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas B V posted another poster on X portraying PM Modi as "MODANAV".
"The new age MODANAV is here. He is Evil. Anti Democracy. Anti Constitution. Anti People. Anti Humanity. His only aim is to destroy Bharat and the idea of INDIA," he said on X along with the poster titled "Hindustan Khatre mein hai - MODANAV. A Bharat Jumlebaaj Party production. Directed by Param Mitra Adani.