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    Congress issues notice to Veerappa Moily's son for tweet on "influence" in party ticket distribution

    Synopsis

    The tweet, which has since been deleted, said: "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."

    Karnataka: Congress issues notice to Moily Jr to explain 'money power' tweet
    BENGALURU: The Congress party in Karnataka has issued a show cause notice to former Union law minister Veerappa Moily's son Harsha over a tweet that said contractors were influencing party tickets. The state is due to hold assembly elections in May.

    The tweet, which has since been deleted, said: "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."

    It was first posted on Moily's Twitter handle @moilyv and then on Harsha's @HarshaMoilyINC. It was not taken down for at least 15 hours, though Moily clarified to all who asked that it was "unauthorised."

    Sources in the Congress said there was suspicion that Harsha had posted the tweet, in an effort to pressure the party to give him the ticket from his father's old assembly constituency, Karkala. Moily is currently the MP from Chikballapur.

    Harsha and Moily had unsuccessfully tried to get him the party ticket for the Mangaluru Lok Sabha in 2014, but did not succeed, a Congress leader pointed out. "Moily has said this tweet is not his, but we have issued a show cause notice to Harsha, just to get clarity and to send out a strong message," he added.

    Harsha had said in a text response to a query from ET on Friday: "Neither I nor my dad are in social media. It's being handled by a third party. I believe our accounts were hacked or the message was sent without our approval."

    The BJP, led by party state president B S Yeddyurappa and Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who hails from the same region as Moily, went to town on the tweet, stating that "someone's conscience" had been pricked to make this matter public. There was also much speculation that Moily may go the way of his former cabinet colleague and rival S M Krishna, who spoke out against the Congress' national leadership and joined the BJP.

    It was also pointed out that Moily did not have a good rapport with chief minister Siddaramaiah. "This is why Siddaramaiah's closest colleague, PWD minister H C Mahadevappa has been targeted," a Congress leader told ET.


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    ( Originally published on Mar 17, 2018 )
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