Trolls of Kavitha: AP BJP leader Vishnuvardhan Reddy chickens out after BRS cadres expose him

HYDERABAD: Within hours of the Hyderabad police cracking the whip against abusive trolls, the tremors of it were felt more in the BJP ranks, that too from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, BJP’s Andhra Pradesh General Secretary, was among the first to spew venom against the measures of the Hyderabad police to protect the dignity of people in public life from trolls.

He particularly targetted Kalvakuntla Kavitha, commenting sarcastically that the BRS MLC could indulge in scams but no one should raise their voice against her on social media. Surprisingly, the retort from the AP BJP leader, who had made Delhi his base ever since he was appointed as the vice-chairman of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghatan of the Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, came much before his Telangana saffron counterparts could barely wake up to the news.

Why was Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, of all people, in such a tearing hurry to throw more stones at Kalvakuntla Kavitha? Well, if the circles privy to the internal functioning of the BJP are to be believed, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh BJP has allegedly been the mastermind behind all the trolls against the BRS people’s representatives, especially MLC Kavitha. It is believed that the BJP leader, hailing from Ananthapur with a raucous past, has been the prime sponsor of the social media blitz against the daughter of KCR.

And naturally, who else would be more pained and anguished than this kingpin of these innocuous-looking hate campaigns, fearing the Hyderabad police crackdown on trolls? Looks like, Vishnu vardhan Reddy is already wetting his pants and hence crying buckets even before the police began whiplashing their way into the case. Out of fear or by design, the AP BJP leader’s act of impulse has clearly exposed who the culprits are and brought to the fore the black sheep behind the obnoxious social media atrocities against the BRS leaders.

In the process, it also exposed his hypocrisy and double standards for brazenly backing the social media trolls, something he bitterly opposed when he was at the same receiving end not so long ago.

His outpouring of sympathy and chivalry for the trolls in question obviously made the BJP leader an instant butt of ridicule for the BRS cadre. More than angry reactions, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy was made fun of by these netizens for his twin-forked tongue-lashing. There were others, who sought to gently remind him of his ignorance in getting a good grasp of a very sensitive issue. In one such eye-opener, Konatham Dileep, Director, Digital Media of Telangana Government, tweeted wondering if the BJP leader even read the document that he had attached in his tweet.

But then, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy quickly showed his repertoire in retreating and why he is often treated with disdain for his farcical antics. His withdrawal was as dramatic as his initiation to open the warfront in the first place. Developing a cold feet, he deleted his first tweet and came up with another to douse the fire. Whether his tweet escapade yielded the intended results or not, it certainly did enough damage by then, to him and to his party.

Vishnu Vardhan Reddy’s act of hypocrisy and running away from the battlefront bears the classical saffron hallmark of ignominy. Even as the BJP man has nowhere to hide, the muck from his own murky past began frothing and flowing over the lid. Why was Vishnu Vardhan Reddy so sympathetic to the social media haters of BRS MLC Kavitha? Well, with a similar past of filth, he can only identify himself with the motley trolls and that perhaps could justify his alleged patronage of the venomous social media trolls.

Using a new Twitter handle since 2019 and a more refined language to suit his rise in the BJP ranks, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy now presents himself with the looks of a statesman in his trademark Nehru jacket. But a look into his social media history prior to 2019, particularly from his alleged previous Twitter handle shows his lust for uncouthness and the ‘below-the-belt’ behaviour. The tweets posted from his alleged former account rips the mask off his gentleman-like exterior. Most of his tweets were highly abusive, filled with cuss words that cannot be repeated here; offensive and communal, spewing hatred and rabble-rousing targetting a particular community. Some of his tweets even show his fascination for film stars, especially drooling over the glamorous actresses of the day, which throws light on an entirely different dimension of his life.

For now, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy chickens out from the war of words over the trolls. But, he is not likely to be forgotten so soon for exposing himself in haste as the backbone of all the paid haters targeting the BRS leaders in Telangana.