HYDERABAD: The battle of fake news ahead of the Munugode Assembly election to spread confusion in the ranks of rivals seems to have started already.
On Friday, the BJP trashed reports of a purported order from the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordering it to halt its ‘Saalu Dora Selavu Dora (That’s enough, it’s time to leave)’ campaign targeting Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
“There is no truth in the reports and we believe the whole issue was engineered by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) which is worried over the campaign’s impact and its increasing reach among the people,” party spokesperson Rani Rudrama said.
Later at night, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay refuted another bit of fake news on the postponement of the proposed meeting of Union minister Amit Shah in Munugode on August 21. Sanjay said there was no truth in the rumours that the meeting had been postponed, and asserted it would be held as scheduled. “Two dates were given, August 21, and August 29 for the meeting. It is scheduled for August 21. Do not believe the rumours that it has been postponed,” Sanjay said.
Earlier in the day, suspecting that an attempt was being made to sow confusion after reports started appearing in a section of the media that the ECI had ordered the party to stop the ‘Saalu Dora Selavu Dora’ campaign, Sanjay issued instructions to party officials to find out the truth. The reports indicated that Telangana BJP had written a letter to the commission asking for permission to continue with the campaign and the poll panel had turned it down, the rumours said.
“We contacted the ECI and spoke with a deputy election commissioner and were told that they did not receive any letter of any sort on the subject,” Rudrama said.
Even as the BJP laid the blame for the episode at the feet of the TRS, the party made it clear that there was no going back on the ’Saalu Dora Selavu Dora’ campaign, and added that the display board at the party headquarters would be back in action. Meanwhile, its online campaign with a website, and an account on Twitter remained active, the party said.
The reports doing the rounds earlier said the ECI had ordered the BJP not to use pictures of the Chief Minister, stop the campaign, and wind up what the BJP said was a ‘Kalvakuntla Countdown Clock’ – launched on June 25 by the state party in-charge Tarun Chugh — marking the number of days it says the TRS will be in power in Telangana.
According to the BJP, the ECI informed the party that the question of it coming into the picture on an issue such as this did not arise as there was no model code of conduct in place. Though a bypoll is expected for the Munugode Assembly seat, official activity related to it has not started in the state.
