TVChannels sting hits PRP credibility
Barely 48 hours ahead of polling for the first phase in the State, the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) Tuesday received a rude jolt in the form of a sting operation by a regional TV channel, casting doubt over the party’s credibility.
Making matters worse, PRP’s women’s wing Mahila Rajyam president Shobha Rani acted high-handedly with the channel’s reporter and cameraman and tried to snatch the camera.
Shobha Rani’s high-handedness with the crew of the TV channel evoked a rash of protests among mediapersons.
Journalist unions condemned her behaviour and sought action against her by the Election Commision (EC).
However, Shobha Rani later tendered an apology to the reporter and the cameraman but demanded that the channel management apologise for the sting operation carried out, dubbing it as sham.
The channel telecast the sting operation in which PRP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Bhongir Chandramouli Goud told a party leader S Prabhakar Reddy that PRP vice-president Devender Goud had taken money from the Congress to field him from there.
Chandramouli Goud alleged that Devender Goud deliberately fielded him from Bhongir constituency to help the Congress candidate win from there. He alleged that Devender Goud had taken big amounts of money from the Congress for `match-fixing’.
As soon as the operation was telecast, the PRP felt the heat and its party leaders tried to scale down the impact.
Devender Goud said the operation was a conspiracy hatched by the Congress and the TDP to suppress the SCs, STs and BCs.
Party political affairs committee member KSR Murthy stated that such practices would be dealt with seriously and not be tolerated even if party general secretary and Chiranjeevi’s brother- in-law Allu Aravind was involved.
Chandramouli Goud said he was not aware of the operation and had casually spoken to Prabhakar Reddy.
Soon after the incident, the victims, along with journalists from other media organisations, lodged a complaint with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) I V Subba Rao and requested him to take action against the accused.
The CEO termed the attack on journalists as an unfortunate incident and assured to take up the issue with the Director-General of Police to initiate action against the accused as per law.
Meawhile, PRP leader Upendra, along with other leaders, called upon the CEO asking for restrictions on the TV channel for telecasting false news.
He termed the sting operation as an attack of rival political parties using dubbed video.
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