A blame game is on between the ruling BJP and the Congress in Karnataka with many areas on the eastern outskirts of Bangalore flooded and residents being ferried to safety on tractors.

Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai triggered the debate by accusing the previous Congress government — an allusion to the one headed by P.C. Siddaramiah from 2013 to 2018 — of being reckless in granting permission to construct apartments and gated communities on wetlands and lake beds that are currently under floodwater.

“All this is happening because of the maladministration of the Congress government. They gave permission, left right and centre, (for construction) on the lakes, tank bunds and buffer zones. They never thought of maintaining the lakes,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“I have already allowed Rs 1,500 crore for storm water drains and Rs 300 crore to remove encroachments so that there won’t be any impediments to the smooth flow of water,” he added.

State Congress president D.K. Shivakumar countered the allegation and said the BJP government had had enough time to take corrective actions if it felt the Congress government had made mistakes.“They could have done something and rectified the so-called mistakes of the Congress government since they have been in power for the last three-and-a-half years. Who stopped them from doing so?”Shivakumar also accused the chief minister of failing to act on the ground. “Please show me some concrete actions under way other than the chief minister visiting some flood-hit areas to show his face. He has no vision for Bangalore, and only needs the money coming from this city,” Shivakumar said.

The Congress chief said his party’s priority was good governance. “We want good governance and want to help the people. The BJP doesn’t have a vision for development and is only interested in communal polarisation,” he said.

Social media was abuzz with jibes about the missing Bangalore South MLA Tejasvi Surya. Many tweeted Surya’s pictures and questioned his absence from the flooded areas.“For no reason he will land up in Congress ruled states, but now when his own state is going through one of (the) worst stages... he is missing,” tweeted Titto Jose.

Many others shared similar tweets. Many residents of Mahadevpura, one of the worst-affected areas, questioned the absence of local MLA Aravind Limbavali of the BJP.

“Don’t they know these are flooded? So where are these MLAs? Where is our Aravind Limbavali?” a young Mahadevpura resident who didn’t reveal his name asked while talking to reporters on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister had said that Mahadevpura was the epicentre of flooding this time, with all the 69 small lakes located there overflowing.“Basically, the Mahadevpura zone is the main problem because it has 69 tanks (small lakes) and all of them have been breached. A lot of establishments (including IT companies) are in this area,” he said.