Ramya accuses Karnataka Congress social media team of targeting her

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar's supporters and the party's former MP Divya Spandana (Ramya) locked horns on Thursday, a day after the actor-turned-politician urged leaders to fight as one.

Spandana even accused the Shivakumar-led KPCC of unleashing trolls to target her.

"So the ‘office’ has circulated these messages among the congress leaders & volunteers asking them to troll me," she said in a tweet, identifying 'office' as KPCC with screenshots of content that party workers were allegedly asked to tweet against her.

On Wednesday, Spandana criticised Shivakumar for casting aspersions on KPCC campaign committee chairperson MB Patil over his reported meeting with Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan.

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"She's seeking attention. I didn't even know where she was all these years. She's trying to find a way back into the party," Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee president Mohammed Haris Nalapad told reporters about Spandana.

She hit back at Nalapad with a tweet: "This boy Nalapad is the honourable KPYCC president (on bail), son of MLA Harris, and he’s questioning my integrity. Wah!"

KPCC general secretary Nayana Jhawar disapproved of Spandana's tweet in which she accused the party of trolling her. "This was so unnecessary on your part," Jhawar said in a tweet. "The least you could have done is show respect to the colleagues who worked with you/for you at social media. Heard of 'bite the hands that feed you'?"

Spandana, who earlier headed the Congress' social media team, asked AICC general secretary KC Venugopal to come to her rescue. "After I quit, ‘she duped the congress of 8 crores & ran away’ was planted in the news especially Kannada channels in an attempt to destroy my credibility. I didn’t run away. I resigned for personal reasons. I certainly did not dupe the party of 8 crores. My mistake was staying silent," she said.

"Humble request to KC Venugopal to please clarify with the media about this whenever you’re in Karnataka next. The least you can do for me Venugopal ji, so I don’t have to live with this abuse and trolling for the rest of my life," she said.

Speaking to reporters, Shivakumar wondered why there was a big fuss. "I don't know what misfired. When I was asked by reporters about Narayan meeting Patil, I said the former may have met the latter seeking protection," he said. "If someone is hurt, we'll discuss inside the party."