Today (February 27), when exit polls are getting announced by pollsters and News Sites, Bhupen Kumar Borah, the chief of the Assam State Congress Committee, has tweeted a fake BBC poll about the Tripura elections in 2023. In his tweet, he clubbed a Tripura Elections opinion poll graphics with a BBC news logo.
The Congress leader, however, quickly withdrew his tweet when netizens called him out for unethically uploading a modified fake opinion poll to show that exit surveys gave a win for his alliance.
Assam Congress chief, in the caption of his now-deleted tweet, indicated that his party and Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI-M) will get over 40 seats in the Tripura Elections 2023 results. Both political parties, who are direct opponents in Kerala, joined hands to form an alliance ahead of the elections.
The Congress state chief, Bhupen Kumar, poorly edited the opinion survey in his eagerness to show his party as the clear winner of the poll. As seen in his tweet, the BBC logo can be seen below the screenshot of the opinion poll pasted on top of the logo, plainly suggesting that it is a false opinion poll.
Soon after the Congress state chief tweeted the BBC fake poll, netizens identified his post as false and chastised the Congress leader for propagating misleading information.
Assam minister and BJP leader Pijush Hazarik took to Twitter to share a screenshot of the fake BBC opinion poll graphic posted by Bhupen Kumar Borah alongside a screenshot of the original BBC news logo on which the opinion poll was superimposed.
“After non stop defeat in elections, Congress has been reduced to using poor edited fake opinion polls Was this the grand strategy decided at AICC Plenary @BhupenKborah ji? PS: You have also violated the law by sharing fake opinion polls on polling day,” tweeted the BJP leader.
Congress files police complaint against Jan Ki Baat’s Pradeep Bhandari after the polls predicted BJP victory
It may be recalled that on Tuesday, February 14, the Tripura unit of the Congress party lodged a complaint against Jan Ki Baat founder Pradeep Bhandari over the recently released opinion polls that predicted a victory for the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
Apparently, the opinion poll did not go down well with the Congress leaders who filed a police complaint against Bhandari saying that despite a directive issued by the Election Commission on the broadcast of opinion and exit polls, the Jan Ki Baat opinion poll was released.
Congress leaders Dr Ajoy Kumar and Gaurav Gogoi, along with party workers, reached the local police station to file a complaint against Bhandari seeking action against him for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct.
Tripura Elections ended on February 16 with unprecedented voter turnout. According to election commission data, Tripura recorded an 87.6% voter turnout out of a total of 28.13 lakh electorates. From 1993 until 2018, the Left Front ruled Tripura for over 25 years. However, during the most recent assembly elections, the state voted out the Left government giving an overwhelming majority to BJP.