Bengaluru, October 22: Is Opposition BJP accepted its defeat before the actual battle started in Mandya, Jamakhandi and Ramanagara constituencies?
In the beginning, the by-election has created a tough fight between ruling Congress-JDS coalition and the opposition BJP. But the present situation and the strategy of the BJP has created such a suspicion. The by-election to be held on November 3 was analysed as the referendum to the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the country. But the BJP, which should be competing with the Congress and JDS for winning all the five constituencies, is seems to be just fighting to retain its own constituencies like Shivamogga and Ballary. The BJP has announced the candidates for the by-elections well before the Congress-JDS coalition. But now, it is fighting in the remaining constituencies for the name sake.
BJP state president and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa who fielded his son BY Raghavendra from Shivamogga constituency has given priority to retain that constituency and MLA B. Sriramulu is fighting it out to elect his sister J. Shanta from Ballary against coalition candidates. But the BJP, which was earlier giving statements that it would win Mandya, Jamakhandi and Ramanagar constituencies, is seems to be not interested in intensifying its campaign.
At the last moment, the BJP has fielded candidates poached from other parties in Mandya and Ramanagara constituencies. Now, the sources in the party said that the candidates have restricted themselves to issue just press statements. Even in Jamakhandi constituency, the BJP has fielded Srikanth Kulkarni who was defeated in the last election. Interestingly, BJP election incharge Jagadish Shettar has gone to foreign trip during the time of campaigning and he would return on October 29, just three days before the voting.
So, except Shivamogga and Ballary constituencies, the BJP leaders might have lost hope of giving a tough competition to the coalition partners in other constituencies. This has led to the suspicion that the BJP has backtracked from its fight against the Congress and JDS candidates in the battle.
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New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
