A tweet by senior Congress leader and chairman of Congress party’s manifesto committee M Veerappa Moily has created a ripples in the Congress party ahead of polls. Both Veerappa Moily and his son Harsha Moily courted a controversy by slamming the selection process of the candidates for the ensuing Assembly polls. Both Moily and his son on Thursday night took to social media site Twitter to slam the election process in the party. Moily also tagged AICC president Rahul Gandhi to make sure his tweet is read by him.
Moily in his tweet alleged a nexus between Contractors and the PWD Minister in Siddaramaiah Cabinet for the selection of candidates for the ensuing Assembly polls in the party. He also said “INC needs to solve money in politics”.
“INC needs to solve money in 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,” Moily tweeted. Few minutes later Moily’s son Harsha Moily in his tweeter handle posted the same statement. The tweet takes a pot shot at Karnataka PWD Minister HC Mahadevappa a close aide of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Meanwhile Veerappa Moily has denied putting out such a tweet and 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.” The tweet from Veerappa Moily and Harsha Moily’s Twitter handles have since been deleted.
A senior Congress leader in the party accepted that there is internal bickering in the party. Both Moily and PWD Minister Mahadevappa are trying to get their sons ticket from the party. According to party sources Mahadevappa is backed by Siddaramaiah and his son Sunil Bose has been politically active in Mysuru and has been assured of a seat. According to party insiders Mahadevappa opposed Harsha Moily’s candidature for Karkala constituency which upset Moily.
The major Opposition BJP finds this a great opportunity and jumped in to criticise the ruling Congress Government led by Siddaramaiah. “At last someone’s conscience in INC has prodded him to speak up! Moily ji is right. We have been saying that Siddaramaiah is 10% CM. With contractors filling PWD Minister’s deep pockets, state’s coffers and roads are in tatters. Congress veteran’s view validates our point,” BJP state President BS Yeddyurappa said in a tweet.
Union Minister Sadananda Gowda also criticised the Congress Government. He tweeted in Kannada and questioned the credibility of the congress. He said in his tweet”Mr Moily revealed that there are irregularities the PWD Minister and contractors indulged. I ask him if the Rs1,500 crore, which was stolen by MlA Munirathna in the name of various projects, is being used for the election.”