Even as the I.N.D.I. Alliance has failed to cross the majority mark in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress leaders are rejoicing over the mere increase in seats this time. As the BJP-led NDA is set to form the government under Narendra Modi’s leadership, Congress has made a last-ditch attempt to stop Modi 3.0 peddling fake news that the people of Andhra Pradesh are angry with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for supporting Modi.
On the 6th of June, Congress leader Pawan Khera quoted an X post by a Congress supporter who shared a video showing some people burning down posters and flexes. The X user named Venisha G Kiba shared the video with the claim “Angry people of Andhra Pradesh burning down photos of Chandrababu Naidu for supporting Modi.”
Quoting this post, Congress’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera asked, “Why are people of Andhra Pradesh so angry?”
The Congress leader in his desperate attempt to defect TDP from NDA shared misleading news so that the NDA would have to struggle to form the government. Khera did not even care to check the facts about the said video.
The video in question is not recent but from March this year. As the TDP announced Daggubati Venkateswara Prasad as the MLA candidate from the Anantapur Urban seat, the TDP leader and former MLA Prabhakar Choudhary grew enraged and his supporters burnt down the TDP flexes and posters in protest while raising slogans against Chandrababu Naidu.
Thus, it is clear that the video is not recent and the Congress leader and the party supporter were peddling fake news.
As several netizens called out Khera for spreading misinformation in an attempt to create discord between the BJP and TDP right before government formation, he silently deleted his post without any apology and the Congress supporter did the same.
Lok Sabha 2024
On 4th June, the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared results for 542 of the 543 constituencies that went to polls in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. The BJP has won 240 seats, and the Congress bagged 99. The BJP won significantly fewer seats in the recent election compared to the 282 seats it won in 2014 and the 303 seats it won in 2019. On the other hand, Congress saw a significant increase, gaining 99 seats compared to 52 in 2019 and 44 in 2014. The opposition bloc surpassed the 230 threshold and showed formidable opposition as it defied all exit poll predictions. However, Narendra Modi is set to return as the prime minister of India for his third historic term.
