Proxy fight between two BJP leaders reaches Bengaluru's cyber police
TNN | Feb 28, 2019, 08:44 IST
R Ashoka (L) and Arvind LimbavaliBENGALURU: Fissures within the state BJP unit appear to have widened with a proxy fight between two senior leaders, R Ashoka and Arvind Limbavali, reaching the doors of Bengaluru city police’s cybercrime unit.
Party insiders say differences between the two leaders cropped up when an alleged defamatory campaign against Ashoka surfaced on social media during the 2018 assembly elections. While the Padamanabhanagar MLA and former DyCM initially ignored the posts — circulated on the party’s internal WhatsApp groups and in nondescript public posts — the matter took a serious turn when it began to hurt his image with the state and central leadership.
Fed up with the malicious campaign, Ashoka is said to have approached D Devaraja, DCP (central), to investigate the matter. The case was transferred to the cybercrime unit and sleuths arrested a person in connection with the case about a month ago.
Police sources confirmed that the accused is a BJP party worker, who was deployed by someone in the party to launch a campaign to malign Ashoka. Incidentally, it was around this time that Ashoka was ignored by state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa and was kept out of the former CM’s coterie.
Party insiders believe the situation is a result of a tussle between Ashoka and Limbavali, current Lok Sabha elections co-convenor for Karnataka.
“During the May assembly elections, Limbavali used the entire social media machinery to serve personal interests rather than function for the party,” said a party worker from the BJP IT wing. “During this time, he is said to have used the party’s social media machinery to defame Ashoka.”
Limbavali, it is said, is trying to rise through the ranks and share proximity with the central leadership of the party. While Ashoka was hailed a hero during the 2015 BBMP polls for ensuring victory for the BJP in 100 of the 198 wards, his political capital tumbled after he failed to wrest control of the council from the Congress-JD(S) coalition. Taking advantage of the situation, Limbavali is said to have become a confidante of Yeddyurappa along with Malleswaram MLA Ashwathnarayan Gowda.
The proxy war though resulted in the social media wing being culled out of the IT cell of the party. “While earlier the IT cell included the social media wing, the state BJP unit is the only one in the country which has separated the two,” said a BJP party worker.
The division of responsibilities has also led to another defamation tussle between the current IT cell in-charge K Amaresh and social media convener Balaji Sreenivas, with the former filing a criminal complaint in the Rajarajeshwari Nagar police station.
Party insiders say differences between the two leaders cropped up when an alleged defamatory campaign against Ashoka surfaced on social media during the 2018 assembly elections. While the Padamanabhanagar MLA and former DyCM initially ignored the posts — circulated on the party’s internal WhatsApp groups and in nondescript public posts — the matter took a serious turn when it began to hurt his image with the state and central leadership.
Fed up with the malicious campaign, Ashoka is said to have approached D Devaraja, DCP (central), to investigate the matter. The case was transferred to the cybercrime unit and sleuths arrested a person in connection with the case about a month ago.
Police sources confirmed that the accused is a BJP party worker, who was deployed by someone in the party to launch a campaign to malign Ashoka. Incidentally, it was around this time that Ashoka was ignored by state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa and was kept out of the former CM’s coterie.
Party insiders believe the situation is a result of a tussle between Ashoka and Limbavali, current Lok Sabha elections co-convenor for Karnataka.
“During the May assembly elections, Limbavali used the entire social media machinery to serve personal interests rather than function for the party,” said a party worker from the BJP IT wing. “During this time, he is said to have used the party’s social media machinery to defame Ashoka.”
Limbavali, it is said, is trying to rise through the ranks and share proximity with the central leadership of the party. While Ashoka was hailed a hero during the 2015 BBMP polls for ensuring victory for the BJP in 100 of the 198 wards, his political capital tumbled after he failed to wrest control of the council from the Congress-JD(S) coalition. Taking advantage of the situation, Limbavali is said to have become a confidante of Yeddyurappa along with Malleswaram MLA Ashwathnarayan Gowda.
The proxy war though resulted in the social media wing being culled out of the IT cell of the party. “While earlier the IT cell included the social media wing, the state BJP unit is the only one in the country which has separated the two,” said a BJP party worker.
The division of responsibilities has also led to another defamation tussle between the current IT cell in-charge K Amaresh and social media convener Balaji Sreenivas, with the former filing a criminal complaint in the Rajarajeshwari Nagar police station.
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