The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee on issued a show cause notice on Saturday night to Harsha Moily, the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister and former union minister Veerappa Moily, over a controversial tweet from the latter’s account which alleged that there was “money politics”. Karnataka polls are just months away.
interestingly, while Harsha has been asked for an explanation, Veerappa Moily, the chief of the party’s Manifesto Committee has not been asked for an explanation, although it was a tweet from his account.
The tweet, which was deleted soon after it was posted on Thursday night, said, “INC needs to solve money politics. We can’t afford to have road contractors and their nexus with the state PWD minister determine how candidates are selected for the upcoming assembly elections.”
Incidentally, HC Mahadevappa, Karnataka’s Minister for Public Works, is a close associate of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The tweet also tagged official handles of Rahul Gandhi, the party and Harsha Moily.
The same message was also posted from Harsha’s account, which was also deleted.
Speaking to TNM on Friday morning, Veerappa Moily said, “I don’t know how this happened. Neither me nor my son would speak against the party in a public forum like Twitter. I will delete the tweet and get to the bottom of how it happened.”
Both Harsha and Mahadevappa’s son are reportedly seeking tickets from Karkala, Udupi.
Speaking to TNM, KPCC officials said that they suspected that Harsha tweeted from his father’s account.
“The party knows that Veerappa could not have done it as he is not good at these things. He probably does not know how Twitter works,”
“He has been kept on hold,” said another party official, suggesting that anytime other than this, he would have been suspended by the party.
Meanwhile, the controversial tweet gave opposition BJP enough fodder to start a row.
BJP’s chief ministerial aspirant BS Yeddyurappa had said, “At last someone’s conscience in @INCKarnataka prodded him to speak up! @moilyv ji is right. We have been saying that @siddaramaiah is #10PercentCM. With contractors filling PWD min's deep pockets, state's coffers & roads are in tatters. Congress veteran’s view validates our point.”
At last someone’s conscience in @INCKarnataka prodded him to speak up! @moilyv ji is right. We have been saying that @siddaramaiah is #10PercentCM. With contractors filling PWD min's deep pockets, state's coffers & roads are in tatters. Congress veteran’s view validates our point https://t.co/OpaWh1ZwPG
— B.S. Yeddyurappa (@BSYBJP) March 16, 2018