Karnataka: One-liners, memes give netizens a good laugh

BENGALURU: Away from political mudslinging unfolding at poll rallies across the state, chat groups and

social media

pages across the spectrum are having a field day with catchy one-liners, jokes and memes all around.


While political memes have been around for quite some time, they became far more prevalent ahead of the

Lok Sabha

polls in Karnataka as smartphone users are increasingly being bombarded with them. Many of these messages are not only being churned out by the well-oiled machinery of parties but also some creative apolitical youngsters.

For instance, one meme showing chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s calling his son, “Nikhil, yellidiyappa? (Nikhil, where are you?) and the latter responding saying “Appa, ninna mathu thaathana preethiso janara madhya idine (Dad, I am in the middle of people who love you and grandfather Deve Gowda)”. This was originally enacted by the organisers at the audio and music launch of Nikhil’s debut movie ‘Jaguar’ in 2016, but it has become a social media sensation and over a dozen memes were circulated after Nikhil announced his decision to contest from Mandya LS seat.

Former CM Siddaramaiah and BJP leader KS Eshwarappa are two favourite leaders of meme makers. Siddaramaiah’s recent comment saying that he is scared of people sporting tilaks and Eshwarappa’s deride on former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda that if the JD(S) supremo had 28 sons, he would have fielded all of them in 28 LS constituencies is one such. The WhatsApp groups also broke into a fit of memes after BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa said the air strikes on Pakistan will help the BJP win 28 seats in Karnataka, linking it to cricket team’s historic series win in Australia followed by the series loss in India.

This apart, standup comedians and some highly creative minds are putting to best use in mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trademark dialogues “Bhaiyo aur Behno” and “Mitron” and AICC president Rahul Gandhi’s gaffes during speeches.

A latest video shot by a Kannada news channel shows an old man, when asked, who he likes the most between Narendra Modi and Rahul, sheepishly answers: “I don’t like either of them. I only like my wife.’’

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