Online character ‘assassinations’ at play as voters line up at polling stations

HYDERABAD: Doctored photographs of two politicians who never met, audio clips purportedly between two people lamenting on the poor showing of their party as people moved to polling stations, and video clips of fake news, that could easily pass off as real ones, were among the hallmarks of an online battle between political parties on Thursday even as people in Munugode made their way throughout the day to polling stations to vote for the candidate of their choice.

One of the targeted victims of these online attacks seeking to sow doubts in the minds of voters, was Congress candidate Palvai Sravanthi, who surely must have been surprised to see a picture of herself with TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.

With a screen shot of a TV screen of a news channel, the image ran with a caption that she met the Chief Minister for half an hour, ostensibly to secure a political future. Of course, that was immediately condemned by Sravanthi, who said she was being targeted by all her political opponents to hit her chances in the Munugode by-poll. This was serious enough for the Chief Minister also to condemn it at a press conference he held later in the evening.

Then there was a recording that made some very quick rounds on social media platforms of what was described as a telephone conversation between two supporters of BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy. The male voices lament how the BJP had let the campaign down by not working enough, that there was no coordination between the party and Rajgopal Reddy camps and talk about how the BJP has given up the battle.

There were also a series of short videos claiming that BJP workers were handing out cash, up to Rs 20,000 to different voters, each of them shot very carefully not to show the faces of the ‘recipients’. And then there was a fake news clip claiming that Rajgopal Reddy had on Wednesday night met the Chief Minister to explain how he was forced to join the BJP indicating that the BJP candidate did not really have his heart in the Munugode bypoll battle.