In poll bound Karnataka, Congress hit by fake news twice in three days

For the Congress, there has been another battle on hand apart from the gruelling fight ahead of the Karnataka assembly election. An Intelligence Bureau note and a fake candidates list are what the party has been hit by in the past one week.

On Tuesday, there was a candidates list doing the rounds on WhatsApp in which the names of 132 persons were there. Some channels began airing the list which claimed that Mallikarjuna Kharge had replaced his son from the Chittapur constituency.

However, the problem was that the list was signed by senior Congress leader, Oscar Fernandes. The fact is that he has been admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram hospital in New Delhi and is no longer the authorised signatory for such lists.

Karnataka Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah was quick to react and dismissed the list as fake. He said that the AICC had not authorised the list and the fake list was released to cause confusion.

In another incident, a note prepared by the Intelligence Bureau was in circulation. It said that the Chamundeshwari constituency was not safe for the Chief Minister. It also suggested four other constituencies from where the CM could contest.

The note was signed by Intelligence Chief, A M Prasad and designated him as an ADGP. However, Prasad is a DGP rank officer. The second flaw was the address which was mentioned wrong. Moreover, the IB never sends out such notes and matters are conveyed orally.