After remaining out of the spotlight for a while, ex-Congress IT cell chief and former MP, Divya Spandana ‘Ramya’ has taken to Twitter to launch a scathing attack on her former colleagues. She has accused them of using media to malign her reputation.
In a Tweet posted on May 12, Thursday, the Kannada actor alleged that fake news has been planted in the media after she quit the party in an attempt to destroy her credibility. She stated that she didn’t run away and regretted remaining silent all this time.
“After I quit, ‘she duped the congress of 8 crores & ran away’ was planted in the news esp 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,” wrote Divya Spandana.
After I quit, ‘she duped the congress of 8 crores & ran away’ was planted in the news esp 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-
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) May 12, 2022
The former Congress loyalist requested Congress leader KC Venugopal to clear her name in the media regarding reports which said that she had duped the Congress of Rs. 8 crores when she quit the national party.
Divya Spandana’s Tweet was probably in response to 2019 media reports that claimed that Rahul Gandhi’s “most-trusted aide Praveen Chakravarty and Divya Spandana went incommunicado since the day of the general election results after allegedly charging huge sums of money in the name of research.”
The Times Now report had further claimed that the Divya Spandana is “said to have received Rs 8 crore for her research and social media drive during the electioneering phase. She is not just missing from the scene but she has also deleted both her Twitter and Instagram accounts.”
‘These opportunists have only backstabbed & tried to suppress me’: Ramya on her ex-party colleagues
In response to her previous Tweet, she further wrote, “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.”
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 https://t.co/L33fNS2M4N
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) May 12, 2022
Notably, on Wednesday, the ex-Congress IT cell chief had also alleged that the Congress instructed its workers to troll her on social media for a remark she’d made against Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar earlier in the day.
So the ‘office’ has circulated these messages among the congress leaders & volunteers asking them troll me. Save yourself the trouble- I’ll do it myself. @srivatsayb @DKShivakumar
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) May 11, 2022
Taking to Twitter, Ramya alleged that the Congress “circulated” messages amongst its leaders and volunteers to get her trolled.
“So the ‘office’ has circulated these messages among the congress leaders & volunteers asking them troll me. Save yourself the trouble — I’ll do it myself”, Ramya wrote. She attached screenshots of several messages in English and Kannada that were purportedly disseminated to troll her. She also tagged Shivakumar and Congress’ Srivatsa YB, who is currently a member of Rahul Gandhi’s team and was previously the Karnataka Congress’ social media chief, in her Tweet thread.
Earlier in the day, Ramya chastised the Karnataka Pradesh Congress (KPCC) chief, DK Shivakumar for a statement he made on Tuesday against Karnataka’s Higher Education Minister and BJP leader Ashwathnarayan CN alleging that the minister met with Congress leader MB Patil to “seek protection” from being questioned on public platforms in the PSI recruitment scam.
Divya Spandana, the ex-Congress IT cell head and her stint in Congress
Divya Spandana, better known by her moniker, Ramya, also a well-known actor in Kannada and Tamil film industry had taken over as the social media head of the Congress party in the year 2017. During her stint as the party’s social media head, many Congress enthusiast journalists wrote accolades calling her a vintage politician and credited her with singlehandedly reviving Congress’ social media presence.
In 2019, following Congress’ humiliating defeat in the 2019 general elections, Spandana had deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts citing a “break from politics.” She even ceased speaking with party leaders. She nearly vanished from public view after the Congress announced that none of its leaders would participate in television discussions after a row over her Tweet congratulating Nirmala Sitharaman. She was afterwards fired from her position, as per reports.
During her tenure as the Congress social media head, Congress’ Twitter handle saw a series of slip-ups over the time, which made them the butt of all jokes on Twitter. Besides, like her innumerable other party members, Divya Spandana had often indulged in sharing fake news to malign the BJP government at the centre.
In 2019, Spandana was caught sharing a digitally edited image of German dictator Hitler ‘posing’ like he is pulling a child’s ears to compare him with Prime Minister Modi.
In fact, Congress’s social media team when headed by Divya Spandana use to regularly use morphed images. In the same year, Congress posted a shocking image which mocked the victims of the Pulwama terror attacks and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru with a single digitally edited image. This faux pas of Divya followed by various other misadventures had sparked speculation that Spandana was on her way out as Congress IT cell head.
In 2018, Congress IT cell head, Divya Spandana’s name had been cropped up in a charge sheet that was filed in the Congress sexual harassment case, in which a former party worker had accused the right-hand man of social media chief Divya Spandana of molestation at the workplace. She had also alleged that Spandana had not taken any action, but instead had “mentally harassed” her.
