Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka fielded Tejasvi Surya from Bengaluru South constituency, the BJP candidate finds himself at the centre of a controversy after the Karnataka Congress attacked him, citing gruesome details of allegations of "abuse" by a woman against him and questioned the saffron party about his selection.
Taking to Twitter, Karnataka Congress posted, "Is @Tejasvi_Surya another M J Akbar in the making? Dear @BJP4India, @Tejasvi_Surya seems to be a great choice. #BangaloreSouth will remember. #MeToo #LokSabhaPolls2019." The tweet was accompanied by screenshots of comments allegedly made by the woman on Twitter.
The concerned woman seems to have deleted the comments which she had made against Surya on the social media platform. The woman, in her tweets, claimed to have "suffered" at the hands of Surya and has questioned why the BJP had not done a background check before issuing the ticket to him. The Congress shared the screenshots of the tweet. The woman alleged that she was not his first victim or would be the last and also claimed to be ready to share the proof.
Congress have mentioned the name of MJ Akbar in its tweet. Following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against MJ Akbar, the minister had to step down as Minister of State for External Affairs in 2018.
Who is Tejasvi Surya?
In a surprise move, the BJP fielded the saffron party's youth wing leader Surya from its bastion of Bangalore South from where the widow of union minister Ananth Kumar, a six-time MP from the constituency, was denied the ticket.
28-year-old Surya, a lawyer by profession, has filed his nomination on Tuesday (March 26). He is the nephew of BJP MLA Ravi Subramanya, who represents Basavanagudi. The party's young candidate is set to face the Congress veteran, BK Hariprasad, who is contesting from the seat after two decades in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019.
After Surya was nominated from Bengaluru South, he expressed his excitement as a BJP candidate in Twitter saying, "I have been blessed with an opportunity to contest as @BJP4India candidate from Bangalore South. I promise to be a committed ambassador of PM Narendra Modi. Join me today as I file my nomination and embark on this new journey.
