With less than 24 hours left for Huzurabad by-election, the Election Commission of India (ECI) code of conduct before the election in place, the road shows, public accusations and public campaign has come to an end. But social media has turned into a haven for the politicians who are continuing with their allegations and counter allegations against each other. Leaked videos, fake circulars, morphed photos and money circulation seem to be playing a vital role now.
Interesting ECI has given permission for house-to-house campaign wherein in the name of election slips, the parties are giving away money and buying the voters. The episode of money distribution became very evident when a group of women protested that certain party was giving money to only some sections of women while ignoring others, they demanded money to them also. The women threatened to boycott election if they were not given money and also it is said they would stop others from going to vote.
Meanwhile social media is filled with videos of both the main parties – Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – distributing money. Apart from these social posts of fake news that tries to pull down one another are making rounds and have become viral.
These part latest is a survey that is purportedly done by somebody for TRS which claims that Harish Rao is speaking to his colleagues and informing that the survey clearly indicated TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav will comfortably win the by-election and his nearest competitor would be Eatala Ranjender!
While the analysts and journalists claim that political parties are themselves leaking such things on social media because these will bring in a last moment change among the voters mind. Will they turn out to be helpful or harmful only November 2 will tell us, until then the battle will continue online or offline!