Bengaluru: Divya Spandana, actress and former member of parliament from Mandya, is amongst a bunch star campaigners whose names have been introduced by the Congress get together for the upcoming meeting elections in Karnataka, scheduled to be held on 10 Could.
Spandana, higher recognized by her display screen title of Ramya, has been lacking in motion since quitting her submit of the Congress’s social media cell in-charge in 2019. She had additionally deactivated her Twitter account for a couple of 12 months, earlier than making a return to social media in 2020.
She is considered one of 40 star campaigners for the upcoming Karnataka polls, whose names had been introduced by the get together Wednesday. The checklist consists of political activist and former pupil chief Kanhaiya Kumar, former captain of the Indian cricket crew Mohammed Azaruddin, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, actor and get together chief Raj Babbar and Rajya Sabha member and former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, amongst others.
Different names on the checklist embody Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge and senior get together leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, who will be part of a bunch of state and nationwide leaders within the marketing campaign.
The get together has additionally included the title of former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP chief Jagadish Shettar, who joined the Congress days in the past, within the campaigner’s checklist. Shettar can be the get together’s candidate within the Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency in northern Karnataka.
One title lacking from the checklist is that of Sachin Pilot’s. Pilot had featured within the Congress’s checklist of star campaigners for Karnataka within the 2018 elections, for the 2021 Kerala Meeting elections, and likewise for final 12 months’s Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections.
The 45-year-old chief from Rajasthan has been staging a protest towards the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress authorities in his dwelling state, accusing it of not probing corruption instances of the sooner BJP regime.
The checklist of Congress’s star campaigners was introduced the identical day because the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) launched its checklist of 40 star campaigners for the Karnataka polls.
The BJP checklist consists of the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari, Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath, Himnata Biswa Sharma and Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Karnataka Chief Ministers B.S. Yediyurappa and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, amongst others.
Apparently, firebrand Bengaluru South MP and nationwide BJP youth president Tejasvi Surya’s title is lacking from the checklist.
Political observers are linking it to the flak drawn by Surya for “by chance” opening the emergency door of an plane in December. Earlier this week, the BJP MP had challenged Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to advertise Nandini milk in Kerala if his appreciation of Karnataka’s dairy model was real. He had additionally hit out at former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah for urging the central authorities to make sure the protected return of stranded Indian nationals in Sudan.
In the meantime on Wednesday, BJP nationwide president J.P. Nadda and standard Kannada actor, Kicha Sudeep, additionally took half in a roadshow to assist Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s submitting of nomination from the Shiggaon seat.
Additionally learn: ‘Santhosh ending off seniors, gameplan to regulate state unit’ — Shettar provides gasoline to Karnataka BJP disaster
Shock and preventing discontent
The Congress’s checklist of star campaigners stunned a few of its personal legislators, who referred to as it a “as soon as in a blue moon checklist”, claiming a number of of those that function on the checklist do not need any clout. This consists of Spandana, they alleged.
Ramya joined the Youth Congress in 2012 and was elected as an MP within the August 2013 Lok Sabha by-elections. She later moved to Delhi and took over as the top of the get together’s social media cell in-charge, after dropping the 2014 basic elections.
Although recognized for her hard-hitting posts on social media, she had additionally usually courted controversy for a similar, as when she in contrast a photograph of PM Modi with the Statue of Unity to bird-dropping.
In 2018, she created a buzz when she quickly eliminated her Twitter bio, the place she described herself as “dealing with Social Media & Digital Communications for the Congress get together”, resulting in speculations that she had give up from her place, particularly within the mild of the truth that she hadn’t been going to her 15, Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Street workplace for a number of days.
Inside days, nevertheless, she had restored the bio and returned to workplace.
In 2020, after returning to social media after a 12 months’s absence, she had instructed ThePrint in an interview that she wouldn’t be part of both movies or politics anymore.
A senior Congress workplace bearer, nevertheless, instructed ThePrint Wednesday, on situation of anonymity that “she has been with the get together and has agreed to marketing campaign for the Congress within the upcoming elections”.
In the meantime, the BJP, with its checklist of star campaigners, has tried to comprise dissent amongst its ranks by together with Ok.S. Eshwrappa, Prabhakar Kore, Arvind Limbavali and Basangouda Patil Yatnal, sources within the get together instructed ThePrint.
Eshwarappa, Limbavali and Kore had been omitted of the get together’s candidate checklist which noticed protests and a big quantity of disillusionment amongst their supporters.
Yatnal, however, has been a vocal critic of B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai and had agitated towards the BJP authorities over the Panchamasali reservation row.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Additionally learn: ‘Left, proper, touchables, others’ — how divisions amongst SCs are impacting Karnataka politics