Malviya tweeted the video on Tuesday which shows a group of women taking a selfie with the Chief Minister at a function. One of the women comes forward to take a selfie and Siddaramaiah pulls her closer for the group picture.
Malviya, perhaps pointing to Siddaramaiah to pulling the woman closer to others in the picture, asked, “Can @siddaramaiah keep his hands off women in public?”
Can @siddaramaiah keep his hands off women in public? pic.twitter.com/bk6pKHAR0c
— Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) January 9, 2018
Reacting to Malviya's tweet, Congress leader Divya Spandana said,"It’s election time, it’s time for BJP to stoop lower than they already have."
The video got many retweets from BJP followers.
But it also drew sharp reactions from Twitterati, with users quickly pointing out there was nothing vulgar in it. Some users saw this as an attempt to malign Siddaramaiah as a womaniser, while others tweeted that they saw nothing wrong in the gesture. They took strong exception to Malviya’s attempts to call out Siddaramaiah for the gesture he made on stage calling it a cheap tactic.
it was a gesture.. what vulgarity do you see in that??
— Bharat (@mbharatr) January 9, 2018
@malviyamit 's mind is vulgar. He sees vulgarity in every action.
— Bertand Hussell (@Bertrand_Hussel) January 9, 2018
Sir there are 100s of issues that u can counter him on, u r behaving as a troll now, counter him with bad roads, bad governance on the state, pathetic power supply in the state, hopeless law and order, corruption at lot of levels, murder of officers, when it rains in Blore
— Maverick (@DiAltoK10) January 9, 2018
malviya this is enough! if you can't differentiate between good gesture and vulgarities then it is nothing but your parental problem.
— Mukesh Pandey (@pmukesh10) January 10, 2018
Amit - Please. Lets not become like them. This tweet is below the belt... I recommend you delete it
— janamari (@janamari) January 10, 2018
Few Twitter users responded to the video by pointing out the incident of two BJP leaders caught watching porn at the assembly in Karnataka.
This is not the first time Malviya has tried to attack a Congress leader by posting photos or videos of them with women. In November, fact-checking website Alt News called out Malviya for sharing pictures of Jawaharlal Nehru embracing his sister and niece.
Malviya had tweeted a collage of pictures showing Nehru with various women. His words accompanying the collage said: "It seems Hardik has more of Nehru's DNA, contrary to what @shaktisinhgohil claimed."
He was believed to be referencing a tape reportedly showing Hardik Patel having sex that went viral.
But it turned out to be a major goof up as the images appeared to have been taken out of context, with most women in the images being Nehru’s family members.