Bengaluru: The war of words between Congress and BJP over the AI Impact Summit intensified, with Priyank Kharge joining the criticism and accusing the Centre of sidelining southern states that are driving India’s AI growth. IT-BT minister Priyank, son of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on social media, alleged mismanagement at the summit. “Listen to the startups, exhibitors and more importantly the foreign delegates on their opinion about the India AI Impact Summit2026. You will not need AI, just common sense to understand this debacle. Also, I still haven’t spoken on the opportunities the state has missed because of the extreme mismanagement of the central govt (sic),” he said. Priyank on Sunday told TOI that logistical issues forced Karnataka to relocate its meetings from Bharat Mandapam, the venue of the summit, to Karnataka Bhavan. “We were forced to shift our meetings on the last two days as delegations could not even reach our staging area,” Priyank said. “Some delegations that were scheduled to meet us at our stall, could not make it and only met us after the event. It was chaotic for a global event.” Despite the alleged disruptions, Priyank said the state secured investment commitments and held discussions with global firms including Mistral AI, Google, Harvey, ElevenLabs, Disney, and Anthropic, among others. However, former Infosys CFO and IT industry veteran TV Mohandas Pai said the minister was being “petty”, although he acknowledged some shortcomings in managing the event. “Many of our investee companies, associates, and friends were there,” Pai said. “Yes, there was overcrowding, some bad management, and security high-handedness, but it does not take away from the unprecedented scale and attendance at the event. It is a great success for India and Karnataka. Always making negative comments does you no good.” Pai said investors do not come to Karnataka “because of the minister” but due to the eco system built by firms over decades “despite mismanagement of Bengaluru”. “Many of us talk to them to get them here,” he said.
