Cyber war unleashed to defame rivals

Tandur: Electoral authorities have turned the spotlight on social media to curb its misuse by political parties and independents. They found that some miscreants have already been spreading misinformation with mala fide intentions to scupper their opponents. Several incidents of social media malpractices came to the fore in Vikarabad district recently.

Some people created WhatsApp group in the name of some aspirants who are vying for the party tickets in the coming elections. A derogatory campaign has been unleashed against a community to embarrass the hopeful belonging to it and alienate him from the voters of that community. At present, Congress and TRS parties are involved in a fierce cyber war.

This particular abuse came to light in the case of Rohit Reddy who has been a keen aspirant for Congress party ticket from Tandur constituency. A fake WhatsApp group has been created in his name and several postings were put up criticising a ‘community,’ which spread like wildfire. Reacting to this, BC leaders from Congress, BJP and TDP came down heavily on him for making such comments against a backward community. Municipal Chairperson Sunita along with Raju Goud, Vishwanath Goud, Dr Sampath, Baswaraj, Srinivas Chary, Narsimhulu, Ramesh and leaders of the community addressed the media on Tuesday and criticised the alleged comments of the Congress leader.

Reacting to this unexpected onslaught, supporters of the young congress leader also held a press conference and condemned the allegations. They said they were going to take legal action against a former ZPTC member Rakesh for creating the group and damaging the reputation of their leader. Congress leaders from the community Muralikrishna, Vijay, Uttamchand, Yadaiah, Gopal Reddy, Venkataiah, Irfan, Gopal, advocate, Vikram, Mumbapur Narayana Reddy, Prabhakar Goud and others were present. Both the groups levelled serious complaints against each other in the Town Police Station. DSP Ramachandrudu said cases had booked and an inquiry was ordered.

But that has not put out the raging issue which is inflaming passions of the said targeted ‘community’ whose leaders are up in arms against Reddy. State secretary of the association S Buthaiah, JAC President of the constituency Nageshwar, leaders B Babu, Ravikumar, Anjaneyulu, Shekhar, Krishna, Srinivas demanded legal action against the Congress leaders. Speaking at a conference in Parigi, they demanded an unconditional apology publicly.

There is another instance of online abuse which has outraged the TRS Party. The ‘fake group’ turned heat on TRS candidate. MP Konda Visweswar Reddy also filed a case at Tandur police station saying some people created a WhatsApp group in his name and were spreading hate messages against one community. 
He alleged that Naresh and Rakesh from Congress party created this fake group. “Though they are good friends of mine, the two local leaders are suspected to be involved in it,” the MP said. People of the constituency who are watching the developments and the ‘war among communities’ are dismayed by the insidious insinuations in circulation online.