Disgusted at social media campaign against me: Congress campaign face

Peppered with flak in the social media, Hasiba Amin, the face of the Congress's pre-election TV commercial campaign, has said she is disgusted with efforts to spoil her image.

"Disgusted with the campaign against me. Not a bit of it is true. Think of the girls in your family before you falsely spoil the image of a girl," she said via her Twitter and Facebook accounts, after facing accusations of backing a Congress leader with alleged drug mafia links in 2012 and seeking expulsion of a Congress youth leader for exposing police-politician-drug mafia nexus.

Amin, 23, is the pro-youth, anti-corruption face of the Congress's first of many television commercials beamed nationwide and aimed against the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

At a press conference in February 2012, Amin, then the state chief of the party's students wing National Students Union of India (NSUI), called for the suspension of member Sunil Kawthankar, who had filed a police complaint naming then home minister Ravi Naik and several police officers as part of a drug mafia nexus.

She had accused him of "completely tarnishing the NSUI name in Goa by making baseless allegations against Congress ministers".

Kawthankar's allegations were, however validated, by a legislative committee report, which indicted Naik as well as several police officers, including Director General of Police Kishen Kumar, of having patronised the drug mafia in Goa.

Contacted for comment, Amin told IANS that she was not at liberty to make any comment on the television campaign and that "only the Congress central media cell and its in-charge Ajay Maken are authorised for comment on the issue".