Congress Smokes Itself Out With ‘Beedi vs Bihar’ X Post Drama

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress party, already busy putting out its own fires, has landed in another mess, this time over a social media post that bizarrely compared Bihar to… beedis. Yes, beedis.

The post, now deleted, explained how cigarettes attract 40 percent GST while beedis face only 18 percent, down from 28. But for reasons known only to Kerala Congress’s digital team, Bihar was dragged into this tax comparison. The result? Outrage from opposition parties, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, and even allies in the INDIA bloc.

As usual, Congress scrambled for answers. Leaders Sunny Joseph, Adoor Prakash, and V D Satheesan all had different explanations. Satheesan even claimed he didn’t know the Kerala unit had a digital media wing at all.

Attention then turned to V T Balram, KPCC vice president and head of the digital media cell. Balram denied making the post and said he would never insult Bihar deliberately. But critics quickly reminded everyone of his past controversial remarks, including the infamous AKG comments that cost him politically.

Soon reports emerged that Balram had been removed from his post. But in true Congress style, the story didn’t end there, the party later clarified he had not been removed. KPCC chief Sunny Joseph said the posts are handled by “a group of professionals” (read: nameless interns with Canva) and not Balram directly. He even accused the media of trying to tarnish Balram’s image, as though Congress wasn’t already doing a fine job of that on its own.

Joseph insisted Balram is still in charge, not suspended, not sacked, not even mildly scolded. At most, the party might “reorganise” the digital cell before the next elections, which probably just means changing the password.

So, one deleted post has managed to create more drama for Congress than any of its actual campaigns in Kerala.