Bengaluru:  Even as the Congress is grappling with senior leaders lobbying for their children and relatives to get tickets to contest the forthcoming Assembly elections, the ruling party suffered embarrassment when a scathing tweet by Chairman of the Party’s Manifesto Committee and former Union Minister Dr. M. Veerappa Moily slammed the process of selecting candidates.

However, after embarrassing the Congress by the tweet alleging the hand of road contractors in the selection of candidates, Moily disowned the tweet. Both Moily and his son Harsha Moily have deleted the tweet. The tweet that Veerappa Moily claimed was an “unauthorised” one accused Public Works Minister Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa, without naming him, of using money power and his alleged nexus with corrupt contractors in selecting candidates for the Assembly elections.

“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,” stated the tweet posted late on Thursday. The same tweet also appeared on the Twitter handle of Harsha Moily.

Speaking to presspersons, Moily clarified, “I will not comment in public on the party’s internal affairs. The Twitter handle could have been hacked. I will never use a social media platform to criticise the party. It was an unauthorised tweet and I will have to find out who did it.” The tweet was deleted yesterday morning.

Moily said “That Twitter (handle) is not in my control. It’s not (an) appropriate (tweet). I’m withdrawing (it). Neither me nor my son has any role in it, the former CM said. It was a mistake committed by somebody else and I will ensure it will not repeat in future,” he stated. When asked whether he will file a complaint with Cyber Crime Police, he just said: “Forget the matter.”

According to sources, Moily is upset with Dr. Mahadevappa following a standoff they had at the party’s State Election Committee meeting held on Mar. 14 on who should get the ticket for the Karkala Assembly Constituency in Udupi district.

Moily wants his son Harsha to get the ticket while Mahadevappa backed the candidature of Uday Kumar Shetty, a Class-1 contractor, sources said. Former MLA Gopal Bhandari is also an aspirant for the Karkala ticket. Shetty, who is a close aide of Mahadevappa, has been nursing the Karkala constituency for the past few months. It is said that he was running a campaign to malign Harsha, which angered Moily.

At the State Election Committee meeting, Mahadevappa is learnt to have said that fielding Shetty would result in victory with no campaigning required, a view Chief Minister Siddharamaiah is learnt to have endorsed.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mahadevappa, a loyalist of CM Siddharamaiah, said there was nothing to comment on the matter as Veerappa Moily had disowned the tweet. “I have no connection with the tweet and the party has not finalised any candidate for any constituency. Moreover, since Moily had disowned the tweet, there is no controversy,” he said.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President Dr. G. Parameshwara said it must be the handiwork of the BJP to discredit the Congress when it was holding plenary session. One person can’t hijack the ticket selection and it is a lengthy process, he added.

Chief Minister Siddharamaiah said “since Moily himself has clarified that he has not tweeted, now the matter is closed and there is nothing to react.”