Indian film actress and politician Divya Spandana aka Ramya, is a former Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka.
She began her career in 2003 and went on to act in 39 movies in Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu.
She joined the Indian National Congress in 2012 as a member of its youth wing. She won a by-election in 2013 but was subsequently defeated in the 2014 General Elections.
In 2017, Spandana was appointed as the national head of Congress's digital team. Her primary task was to revive the party’s social media image.
Her most talked about campaign involves the campaign #AintNoCinderella to support Varnika Kundu, who was ‘chased and almost kidnapped’ in Chandigarh.
The campaign was started to counter Senior Haryana state BJP politician Ramveer Bhatti who stated that the attack was Kundu's fault for being out so late.
In order to challenge the regressive mindset, Spandana designed a campaign wherein she and friends began posting photos of themselves out late at night with the hashtag #AintNoCinderella.
Despite a strong presence in the digital world, Spandana courted several controversies with her unfiltered tweets.
Her post on Congress president Rahul Gandhi having trouble deciding what food to eat while on a in Hamburg, Germany, in 2018 year was criticised as it came at a time when Kerala was battling with floods.
In the same year, she was booked for allegedly posting an “insulting” tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Spandana tweeted a picture of Modi standing next to Sardar Patel’s 182-metre-tall statue in Gujarat, which was unveiled, with the comment: “Is that bird dropping?”
The same year, in October, Spandana deleted her Twitter bio which read “handling Social Media & Digital Communications for the Congress party”.
Many speculated if she had quit her position and left Congress.
However, she quashed the rumours and was back with her routine.
In May 2019, the Lok Sabha Elections BJP came back for the second time with a majority, defeating Congress.
The following month, Spandana deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts citing “break from politics.”
She even cut off all communication from party leaders.
There were also reports that Spandana and Rahul Gandhi's most-trusted aide Praveen Chakravarty allegedly charged huge sums of money in the name of research.
Spandana is said to have received Rs 8 crore for her research and social media drive during the electioneering phase. However, she was MIA to understand the depth of the situation.
Fast forward to 2020, Spandana is back with a bang.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh had tweeted: “Supreme Court of India upholds the validity of #PMCaresFund . Refuses to instruct Govt to transfer fund to NDRF . Hope that should send out a message...loud and clear.”
Reacting, Spandana wrote: “Clear as daylight- dal mein definitely kuch kaala hai.”
Seems like the real “party” is about to get started.
