A fake report that appeared in the social media on Tuesday morning landed popular Telugu television channel in an embarrassing situation.
The report carried the footage of TV9 channel saying Congress party candidate in Dubbak by-elections Cheruku Srinivasa Reddy had returned to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi hours before the commencement of polling.
Srinivasa Reddy was in the TRS till recently, but defected to the Congress only after he was denied the ticket by the TRS which chose to field Solipeta Sujatha, widow of deceased MLA S Ramalinga Reddy. The Congress fielded him in the polls.
Similar report with 10TV logo also appeared in the social media and went viral, shocking the Congress leadership. Since majority shareholder in TV9 and 10TV is My Home Group which is closer to the ruling TRS, it naturally evoked suspicion.
However, TV9 strongly denied the report that appeared in the social media. It lodged a complaint with the Cybercrime police, stating that some mischievous elements spread the news using the channel logo. Similar complaint was lodged by 10TV representatives.
Congress candidate Srinivas Reddy was also quick in denying the report, saying there was no question of returning to the TRS.
“Whether I win or lose, I will stay back in the Congress itself,” he said.
A delegation of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee led by N Uttam Kumar Reddy also met Director General of Police M Mahender Reddy to lodge a formal complaint.
Uttam alleged that the social media report was the handiwork of the TRS and the BJP to confuse voters on the day of polling.
By declaring that the social media report was not telecast by them, both TV9 and 10TV sought to undo the damage to the channels and also to the TRS, which has naturally become a subject of attack from the opposition.
