A picture of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel playing the popular online game Candy Crush on his mobile phone during a party meeting triggered a political debate in election-bound Chhattisgarh.
It started with the Bharatiya Janata Party claiming that Mr. Baghel was busy playing Candy Crush on his mobile phone during a Congress meeting over selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly election as he knows his party will not retain power in the State.
BJP’s Amit Malviya claimed that Mr. Baghel was playing the game at a Congress meeting to decide on the selection of candidates for the upcoming Assembly election.
Mr. Baghel hit back saying he would continue to play traditional games of the State as well as Candy Crush, describing the tile matching game as his favourite. Reposting the same image that the BJP’s Amit Malviya had put out earlier, he added on X (formerly Twitter) that it was for the people of Chhattisgarh, and not the BJP, to decide who would stay in power.
That, however, was the beginning of a series of exchanges, by way of posts and reposts, that the CM and several senior leaders of the State BJP engaged in.
Quoting the CM’s reply, his predecessor and senior BJP leader Raman Singh accused him of “playing” with Chhattisgarh for the last five years, following up with a list of alleged “scam games” he accused the CM of playing, including land, coal, sand and liquor.
“Now that the code of conduct is in place, if you can’t play scam games, you are playing Candy Crush. Amazing, in five years you are at level 4,400 of Candy Crush, and your government is at level 420. Well don’t worry, after November 17 you will have to do this full time,” his post further added. The numbers 4,400 and 420 referred to the CM’s highest score on Candy Crush[that Mr. Baghel posted later] and the Indian Penal Code provision for cheating respectively.
Another senior BJP leader, Rajya Sabha MP Saroj Pandey reposted Mr. Baghel’s 4,400 score post and wrote, “Perhaps Bhupesh Baghel ji is telling how much has been earned so far by combining liquor scam, PSC scam and betting scam. Total 4,400 crores.”
Responding to Mr. Singh’s post, Mr. Baghel wrote: “How cute dr sahab! How do you do all this? Do you take any tonic etc? ‘With Family and Extended Family” those who have played “Kamishankhori ka Commonwealth (Commonwealth games of pocketing commissions)” for 15 years will say all this now. Don’t worry! I am crushing only candies, but public is going to crush Kamishankhors again,” he wrote in a mix of English and Hindi transliterated in Roman font.
An unrelenting Mr. Singh replied by posting a video from the 2010 Common Wealth Games held in Delhi under the United Progressive Alliance government amidst allegations of corruption.
“Commonwealth is not so common. Well, we are remembering the old sins of corruption, anyway, at the time of farewell, old sins start coming to mind. Now watch this video also, memories will be refreshed and you will be able to understand why people want to watch you sitting at home playing Candy Crush,” he wrote this time.
Meanwhile, BJP Lok Sabha MP and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha President Tejasvi Surya who was in Raipur also targeted the Chief Minister. He said that his party if voted to power will get a CBI inquiry into the alleged PSC scam and “send all the culprits to jail so that the Congressman can play Candy Crush inside the jail”.
On the sidelines of these exchanges, the two official handles of both parties’ State units also joined the debate. While Congress posted an image of former Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni playing Candy Crush to suggest it “successful captains” played Candy Crush, the BJP countered it by writing that the while the latter was playing after retiring from the game, Mr. Baghel was doing so when a few days were left for his retirement.
Speaking to journalists later in the evening, Mr. Baghel said playing Candy Crush was his daily post-dinner routine. He added that last evening, he had switched off the game as soon as the meeting began. “What is the problem with playing Candy Crush. We play gedi and with spin top [local games] and jump into the river. We have been playing all these games and this too is a game just to entertain ourselves a little. Is entertaining oneself a crime?” he asked.
