Ramya attacks Karnataka Cong chief Shivakumar for ‘targeting’ his own party leader

Bengaluru: Kannada actress-turned-politician Ramya Thursday joined the ongoing war of words between Congress state chief D K Shivakumar and the party’s campaign committee head M B Patil.

The verbal duel between Shivakumar and Patil started two days ago when the state Congress chief accused the latter 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.

Ramya, the former MP from Mandya, tweeted Wednesday, ”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 trolls” started attacking Ramya saying she forgot the person who helped her rise politically in the party. They even charged her of duping the party of Rs 8 crore. The actress rubbished all the allegations against her.

”If there’s anyone who gave me opportunities & stood by me it’s @RahulGandhi anyone else claiming to have ‘given’ me opportunities is an opportunist.These opportunists have only backstabbed & tried to suppress me. Everything you see on tv is a farce to conceal their devious mind.”

Regarding the duping charge, she said the story was ”planted” in Kannada news channels, and she appealed to senior Congress national general secretary K C Venugopal to clarify this in the media during his next visit to Karnataka, saying she cannot live with this abuse and trolling for the rest of her life.

Ramya took a dig at Youth Congress Karnataka unit president Mohammed Haris Nalapad, saying the man who himself is out on bail in the case of “murderous assault” is questioning her integrity.

Shivakumar had been targeting Narayan, who is also the Ramanagara district in charge minister, over the recently unearthed police sub-inspector recruitment scam, alleging that he favoured a relative to get a good score in the exam and get recruited.

The PSI exam has been annulled after the large-scale corruption charges came to the fore, but the Congress only mounted its attack on the BJP government accusing it of a cover-up.

In the middle of the row, Shivakumar on Monday charged that Ashwath Narayan struck 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 related issue anymore.

While both the leaders dismissed the allegation, the charges made by Shivakumar raised hackles in the party.

The party leaders are divided on this issue with a section saying that Shivakumar should have avoided dragging Patil in the controversy and settling scores with him when the party is preparing for the assembly elections next year. Patil said he has taken the issue very seriously and would raise it at an appropriate forum.