Author: PTI
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 10, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/174975/Moily-removed-as-AICC-media-head.html
M Veerappa Moily, who launched a surprise
attack on JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, has been abruptly removed as chairman
of the Congress media department.
He has been replaced by AICC General Secretary
Janardan Dwivedi, who had been holding the charge earlier, party sources said
on Saturday.
The removal of Moily is believed to be due
to the displeasure of the party high command over his remarks against the
Bihar Chief Minister, who was sought to be wooed by party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Moily had on Friday said that the Congress
is not going to "make a hero" of Nitish Kumar.
"I do not thing Congress is going to
make a hero of Nitish Kumar, the manner in which he has aligned with BJP and
is carrying on...That kind of pollution of his secular credentials with the
communal," Moily had said.
When asked about the Congress decision to
relieve him of his charge as AICC media head, Moily, who is in Bangalore,
merely said that he had given the charge to Dwivedi as he would be away in
Karnataka till May 17.
Moily is contesting elections from Chikkballapur
in Karnataka.
In a flip-flop on Friday, the AICC media head
had first attacked Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and LJP Chief Ramvilas Paswan
in the wake of reports that they were boycotting the meeting of the union
cabinet but later softened to say that they were part of the UPA and would
be back in a UPA Government.
The sources said Moily had exceeded his brief
on earlier occasions too and had created an awkward situation for the party.
Moily, who had been the party's media department
chief for quite some time, had handed over the charge to Dwivedi last month
when he went to Karnataka and had resumed the responsibilities only last week.
In the morning, Moily himself said that he
had given the charge to Dwivedi as he would be away in Karnataka till May
17. He has contested the Lok Sabha elections from Chikkaballapur in Karnataka
and the results would be out on May 16.
However, when reporters approached him at
his residence in Bangalore for comments he appeared agitated terming the reports
as "mischievous news planted by someone".
"As I have been selected as a candidate
from Chikkaballapur, somebody has to be in charge of the media cell. Dwivedi
was put in temporary charge," he said.
