Karnataka election: Modi besotted with Congress-free India, says Sonia

Describing the electoral fight in Karnataka as one of 'clean versus dirty politics', the Congress today hit out at the BJP for fielding the "corrupt" as it launched an initiative for public funding of its candidates.

Seeking to bring transparency in electoral funding, the Congress through the "crowdfunding platform" has collected Rs 5.56 lakh through 213 donations, against its "goal of Rs 28 lakh collections" from the public.

For the first time ever, the party launched the online initiative claiming all contributions made will get income tax relief.

The Congress had earlier strongly opposed the electoral bonds initiative announced by the Modi government for electoral funding.

The party's initiative comes at a time when there is a big political debate on cleaning the political system and bringing in more transparency.