Goa Congressman deletes 'Jyotiraditya as PM' comment

A Goan Congress legislator who Wednesday backed Jyotiraditya Scindia and not Rahul Gandhi for prime minister on Facebook, now claims that he has sacked his social media manager who "erroneously uploaded the comment".

Vishwajit Rane, a mover and shaker in the Congress here, told IANS Thursday that his controversial comment, which also demanded the sacking of Sushilkumar Shinde as union home minister, has been deleted from his Facebook account.

"My Facebook account was being operated by Rajesh Trivedi who runs a Mumbai-based agency. I have sacked him. He should have consulted me before uploading the comment," Rane said, adding that the same agency was also operating accounts of "two young BJP MLAs".

Rane further said that he had also changed the password of his Facebook account to ensure that such controversial comments are not uploaded again.

Rane in his Facebook post had said: "Country needs a young prime minister like Jyotiraditya Scindia who can connect with young India, a great background and class".

Incidentally, the Rane family, which Vishwajit hails from, are Marathas and are linked by marriage to the princely Scindias, also Marathas who were influential lieutenants in Shivaji's empire.

The post also said that India would be well served by appointing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan as the finance minister and that Shinde should be "dumped".

The 'Jyotiraditya' comment had triggered both support and ridicule in the social media.

"I feel Vishwajit needs to be applauded for speaking his mind and expressing his opinion. I don't think expressing support for a youth leader, who is relatively clean and educated should be considered as opposing Rahul Gandhi," says Chinmay Bhandare on Goa+, a popular Facebook group with over 20,000 members.

Shefali Vaidya, another member of the group, however sees it differently.

"Really? Does that mean Vishwajit Rane accepts that Rahul Gandhi cannot connect with young India, does not have a great background and lacks class? My my..quite a revelation this," she says.