Bangaluru: Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily has said his son Harsha will not contest the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections for the “sake of unity” of the ruling party.

The announcement comes days after a tweet row erupted over selection of candidates for the coming elections.

“I have decided. My son (Harsha) has also decided that he will not contest the election this time…We have decided to work for the victory of Congress party in Karkala and all other places,” he told reporters here yesterday.

He said “for the sake of the unity of Congress party we have taken this decision.”

Responding to a question, the former union minister said, “…this is my response to those who write that I wanted seat for my son… dynastic…. He will not contest.”

Moily had recently landed in a controversy over a tweet about “money in politics” in selection of candidates for the assembly polls in Karnataka, leaving the party in a spot before he deleted it.

“INC needs to solve money in politics. We can’t afford to have contractors and their nexus with the state PWD Minister (H C Mahadevappa) determine how candidates are selected for the upcoming assembly elections,” the tweet posted from Moily’s unverified twitter handle had said recently.

The same tweet was shared by Harsha who tagged chief minister Siddaramaiah also.

The tweet was later deleted from Moily and his son’s twitter handles.

As the tweet went viral and created a buzz in the state political circles, Moily had said it was “a mistake” committed by someone else and the Twitter handle was not in his control.

“It’s not (an) appropriate (tweet) .. I’m withdrawing,” he had said.

The tweet row had broke out amid reports that Moily, also a former Karnataka chief minister, was unhappy over ‘discouraging’ remarks made by Mahadevappa during a screening panel meeting about giving party ticket to Harsha to contest the assembly polls from Karkala.

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee had recently issued a showcause notice to Harsha Moily seeking explanation over his controversial tweet.