An edited video clip that gave a distorted impression about Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah pleading his inability to fulfil promises made to the people has led to strong social media exchanges between him and former Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao.

KTR, as he is known, went about claiming that the Congress government doesn’t have funds to fulfil its guarantees in Karnataka and predicted a similar fate in his own state where the party won riding on six guarantees in last month’s Assembly polls.

“No money to deliver poll promises/ guarantees says Karnataka CM! Is this the future template for Telangana too after successfully hoodwinking the people in elections? Aren’t you supposed to do basic research and planning before making outlandish statements?” KTR commented on his X handle, sharing the edited video clip of Siddaramaiah in the Assembly.

Siddaramaiah shot back by taking a jibe at KTR for falling for a video clip allegedly edited and released by the BJP. “Mr @KTRBRS, Do you know why your party lost in the Telangana Elections? Because you don’t even know how to verify what is fake and edited, and what is truth. @BJP4India creates fake edited videos, and your party circulates them. Yours is a perfect B Team of BJP.”

Siddaramaiah had on December 17 retaliated at the BJP by posting the unedited video of his speech in the Assembly in which he was referring to what B.S. Yediyurappa said when he was chief minister in December 2009. Yediyurappa had pleaded

“In a concerning turn of events, certain BJP leaders like Ashwath Narayan, C.T. Ravi and others have engaged in spreading misleading information about me. The deceptive tactic involves circulating an edited video that distorts my statements, falsely implying an admission of the Congress’s inability to fulfill promises made in 2023,” the Karnataka chief minister had posted on X on December 17.

“I cited the fact that Yediyurappa, in 2009, had stated that they didn’t have a printing machine to print notes and lacked the funds to waive farm loans. Yediyurappa had acknowledged that it was not possible for the BJP to fulfill promises made during elections. The reality is that the BJP did not fulfill promises made in 2008 or in 2018...,” Siddaramaiah lashed out in the post.