Parties take Munugode battle to social media

HYDERABAD: Even as the in-person campaigning for the Munugode by-poll ended Tuesday, political parties continued to canvas votes and target their opponents on social media platforms despite the Election Code of Conduct prohibiting such activities for 48 hours preceding the poll.

To ensure that there was no blatant flouting of norms, posts poured in from supporters of leaders from different states with Munugode as the most-mentioned keyword.

In such posts, media conveners of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP’s youth wing, and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi posted videos of their leaders and candidates seeking votes for their parties in the election.

However, most of the other posts seemed to be an extension of Tuesday’s violence in Munugode, with parties blaming one another.

TRS minister G. Jagadish Reddy took to his official handle @jagadishTRS to attack the BJP. He posted: “Lies start first.. Truths come out slowly. Law and order in Telangana is better than all other states. BJP was the first to attack in Palivela. BJP will disturb Nalgonda district which has been peaceful for the last eight years”.

In response, the BJP Telangana party handle tweeted a picture of a BJP delegation filing a complaint against the TRS with the caption: “A BJP delegation submitted a petition to the State Chief Electoral Officer seeking action against the mob that attacked Huzurabad MLA Sri @Eatala_Rajenderin Palivela of Munugode Constituency on November 1”.

BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy re-tweeted a video of a house, with the caption: “There are up to 30 TRS non-local activists in Kothularam village of Munugodu mandal. Here is a video about it”.

Taking aim at both the BJP and TRS, Congress state chief A. Revanth Reddy tweeted pictures of empty liquor bottles with the caption: “The democracy that is suffocating under the pile of alcohol bottles that have been drunk in Munugode! Wake up, wake up!! #Munugode”.