Just as the Karnataka Assembly election results were coming in, Kerala Tourism put out an invitation on Twitter to the newly-elected legislators to “unwind” at “safe and beautiful resorts in Gods Own Country.” The tweet triggered off a wave of humour online, since the absence of a clear winner in the polls made “resort politics” to garner support of MLAs a real possibility.
Kerala Tourism tweeted, “After the rough and tumble of the #KarnatakaVerdict, we invite all the MLAs to unwind at the safe and beautiful resorts of God’s Own Country. #ComeOutAndPlay.”
The tweet from the official handle of Kerala Tourism came just as the Congress and Janata Dal(S) announced an understanding on forming a government, and the BJP was short of a majority.
Tweets galore
The Kerala invitation was retweeted 5,872 times and got over 9,750 likes in a couple of hours. On Kerala Tourism’s official Facebook page, it quickly got 3,000 likes and 1,558 shares. Eager to bask in the limelight, the State’s tourism industry tweeted about properties available.
Twitterati had their own view of the excursion offer. “Gods Own Tweet”, “Sarcasm at its best”, “Kerala Tourism just owned it”, “Hope it has a king-size ATM’, “Why not.. good thinking by Kerala Tourism. Juice the fruit when it is ripe”, “Mallu humour”, they said. Union Minister of State for Tourism K. J. Alphons and State Minister, Kadakampally Surendran joined in with comments.
The government developed second thoughts about being in the spotlight. The Director of Tourism, P. Bala Kiran told The Hindu in a text message, ‘Just came to know. We will pull it down.’ The tweet was gone by 9 p.m. In July last year, ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll in Gujarat, Karnataka hosted Congress MLAs from that State to “protect” them from poaching. A resort on the city’s outskirts was the refuge of 44 legislators.
The resort that was chosen is in the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Congress MP D.K. Suresh, younger brother of Karnataka’s former Power Minister D.K. Shivakumar.
Eagleton Resorts in Bidadi helped the MLAs relax, play sports, visit places of worship and even celebrate birthdays of their children.
