Veerappa Moily alleges Congress selects candidates for money, later denies tweet

Alleging a nexus between road contractors and the Karnataka Minister for Public Works, Veerappa Moily’s tweet raised eyebrows.

news Karnataka 2018

Veteran Congress leader and the Chairman of the party’s manifesto committee – Veerappa Moily and his son Harsha Moily have landed in a controversy.

On Thursday night, the senior Congressman took to Twitter, slamming the selection process of candidates for the upcoming Assembly Elections in Karnataka.

Alleging a nexus between road contractors and the Karnataka Minister for Public Works, Veerappa Moily tweeted, “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.” Veerappa Moily had also tagged AICC President Rahul Gandhi in his tweet.

The tweet takes a pot shot at Karnataka Minister for Public Works, HC Mahadevappa, who is a close associate of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Minutes after his father’s tweet, Harsha Moily also posted the exact same statement from his Twitter handle.

Sources in the Congress say that both HC Mahadevappa and Veerappa Moily want their sons to get tickets to contest the upcoming elections.

“There are some differences as HC Mahadevappa is being backed by Siddaramaiah. The internal surveys had shown that Mahadevappa would lose from T Narasipura. His son, Sunil Bose has been politically active in the constituency since 2016 and the Minister wants his son to contest from there this time. Mahadevappa and Moily are not in good terms because of Mahadevappa’s suggestion that Moily’s son would not be a good candidate,” the source added.

However, 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.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders in Karnataka jumped in to criticise the ruling government by stating that Moily’s “conscience prodded him to speak up”.

“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.

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 March 16, 2018

Jumping in on the issue, Union Minister Sadananda Gowda raised questions on whether the “money obtained from contractors was being used for the elections”.

“Mr Moily revealed that there are irregularities the PWD Minister and contractors indulged. I ask him if the Rs 1,500 crore, which was stolen by MLA Munirathna in the name of various projects, is being used for the electon,” Sadanada Gowda’s tweet reads.