Kannada actor-turned-politician Divya Spandana on Thursday, 12 May, faced trolling after she intervened in a war of words between Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and the party's campaign committee head M B Patil. The actress accused Shivakumar of inciting online trolling against her.
The squabble between Shivakumar and Patil started when Shivakumar accused Patil of holding a "secret meeting" with the Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, allegedly to cover up the police sub-inspector recruitment scam.
Spandana, former Congress MP from Mandya who had earlier been responsible for strategising Rahul Gandhi's social media presence, took to Twitter and stated that often leaders across the parties meet each other, and said that the Congress should fight elections as one unit:
"People across parties meet each other, go to functions, some even get married into families - I'm surprised @DKShivakumar would say this about @MBPatil who's a staunch congressman. Shouldn't the party be fighting elections as one unit?"
Following the tweet, Congress supporters started attacking Spandana on Twitter, bringing up allegations levelled in a Sunday Guardian article in 2019 that had said that she had duped the party of Rs 8 crore. The newspaper, founded by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister MJ Akbar, had reported that Rahul Gandhi's team had gone silent after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Spandana accused KPCC President DK Shivakumar and Srivatsa, Congress's National Campaign Head and a member of Rahul Gandhi's team on Twitter, of inciting the trolling.
She said, "So the ‘office’ has circulated these messages among the congress leaders & volunteers asking them troll me. Save yourself the trouble- I’ll do it myself. @srivatsayb @DKShivakumar."
'Duping Story Was Planted in News to Destroy My Credibility': Spandana
"After I quit, ‘she duped the congress of 8 crores & ran away’ was planted in the news esp Kannada channels in an attempt to destroy my credibility. I didn’t run away. I resigned for personal reasons. I certainly did not dupe the party of 8 crores. My mistake was staying silent," Spandana wrote in her defence on Twitter.
She also requested Congress Secretary KC Venugopal "to please clarify with the media about this whenever you’re in Karnataka next. The least you can do for me Venugopal ji, so I don’t have to live with this abuse and trolling for the rest of my life."
Divya also took a swi[e at Youth Congress Karnataka unit president Mohammed Haris Nalapad, saying the man who himself is out on bail in the case of murderous assault was questioning her integrity.
'Good Copy-Paste Job'
Spandana also posted a screenshot of list of responses that was allegedly circulated among Congress workers to troll her.
One of the pre-dictated response was, "You've been absconding for years now you want talk about politics again!!! Your social media handles should be banned. Oh people assumed that you deleted your account this is extremely surprising, for you to come up like this I don't think you should be talking about Congress leader or party for that matter"..
Using one of those messages was BR Naidu, the social media coordinator of Karnataka Congress, to which Spandana retorted, "Good copy paste job".
The row had begun on Monday, when Shivakumar had charged BJP leader Ashwath Narayan of striking a deal with Patil, a Congress MLA from Babaleshwar constituency and a former minister, in the secret meeting seeking protection not to raise the PSI scam issue anymore.
The PSI exam has been declared as null after large-scale corruption charges had come to the fore, with the Congress accusing the BJP of covering up the scam.
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