The Twitter spat among Congress leaders in the State on Friday took an ugly turn with former Mandya Member of Parliament Ramya taking on the State Congress youth president Mohammed Nalapad by calling him a “boy” who is “on bail” even as the Karnataka BJP waded into the issue by alleging that the controversy has been triggered by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s camp.
The actor-turned-politician has been in the thick of controversy in the last couple of days after she tweeted in support of former Minister and KPCC campaign committee chairman M.B. Patil after KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar alleged that Higher Education Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan had met Mr. Patil to seek protection against allegations of corruption.
Jibes at Nalapad
Late on Thursday night, Ms. Ramya took to Twitter to say, “This boy Nalapad is honourable president of IYC Karnataka (on bail) son of MLA Harris, and he is questioning my integrity. Wah!” She also tagged media reports of Mr. Nalapad’s brush with law in the past. Incidentally, Mr. Nalapad, son of the Shanthinagar MLA, is seen as part of Mr. Shivakumar’s camp in Karnataka Congress.
Her response came after Mr. Nalapad questioned where she was for so many years and asked why she had suddenly made an appearance now. He had also asked her which post she was eyeing. Once social media head of Congress, Ms. Ramya has long been away from limelight.
Ms. Ramya's response to Mr. Nalapad came after she had requested Congress central leader K.C. Venugopal to clear the air on accusations that she had duped the party of ₹8 crore.
Meanwhile, former Minister H.C. Mahadevappa also tweeted asking Congress leaders and workers not to get distracted. “Our competition is BJP and not Ramya. In our ideological fight, there should be no unnecessary confusion,” he said.
On Friday, the ruling BJP also took the opportunity and waded into the controversy. “Mr. Mahadevappa has been defending Ms. Ramya and is not in favour of Mr. Shivakumar. Mr. Mahadevappa is a close associate of Mr. Siddaramaiah. What does it indicate. Is the Mir Sadak gang making DKS a sacrificial lamb,” BJP Karnataka tweeted.
Bonhomie at Udaipur
While the tweets were coming in, the KPCC in a damage control exercise also released photographs of Mr. Shivakumar and Mr. Patil in a jovial conversation with Mr. Siddaramaiah in tow at the ongoing Nav Sankalp Shivir at Udaipur in Rajasthan on Friday.
