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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Who tried to defame Ram Madhav? Here is BJP’s own shortlist

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BJP suspects either Nagaland CM Zeliang or Arunachal Congress leader Nabam Tuki is behind the alleged fake video said to feature BJP gen secy Ram Madhav; the duo denies this charge.

New Delhi: The BJP’s election campaign in Nagaland has been distracted by an alleged video scandal said to feature the party’s northeast in-charge Ram Madhav. And the party, which is hoping to increase its footprint in the region, is blaming local rivalries for it.

According to a report published on a little-known website called ‘The Newsjoint’, the purported video showed the national general secretary of the BJP in a compromising position with two Naga women in a hotel room in Dimapur. The website has since been taken down.

But sources in the BJP said the party suspects that either chief minister T.R. Zeliang of the Nagaland People’s Front or the Congress party could have hatched this ‘conspiracy’ to hurt Madhav.

“He (Zeliang) is upset about the break in the alliance in the state and holds Madhav responsible for it. However, it is to be seen how it could be relevant to this episode,” a senior BJP leader told ThePrint.

The BJP has recently stitched an alliance with the Nationalist Democratic People’s Party (NDPP) led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio, sidelining the NPF headed by Zeliang.

However, Azeu Namcyn Hau, press secretary to Zeliang, rubbished these allegations, saying that the BJP-NPF alliance is intact.

“I am aware of the story but it wasn’t (planted) from our side. The CM had met BJP chief Amit Shah and the alliance is not severed,” said Hau.

“We do not know anything about the veracity of the story that appeared on the website,” he added.

The BJP has also pointed the finger at Arunachal Congress leader and former CM Nabam Tuki. Some of Madhav’s close aides are of the view that the report was planted by Tuki.

“Apparently the fake news to defame Shri @rammadhavbjp was planted by @INCIndia leader of Arunachal Pradesh Mr Nabam Tuki who owns dawnlitpost news agency. On whose instructions? @OfficeOfRG must clarify? With @INCIndia leaders spreading it, quite clear it is!,” Priyang Pandey, a close aide of Madhav, tweeted.

But Tuki denied the allegations. “I do not own any newspaper or news agency in Arunachal Pradesh and have in fact not read the news about Ram Madhav. I have no connection to this news article,” he told ThePrint.

The BJP claims that that Congress is baffled by the BJP’s rise in the northeast and hence it’s resorting to fake news to target the party.

The website

BJP sources said that the website, ‘The Newsjoint’, is just a week old and specifically created to target its leaders in the run-up to the assembly polls.

“We have located the IP address to Singapore and one more country. The investigation will be launched not just in India but also abroad,” said a BJP source.

The Nagaland unit of the BJP has also filed a complaint against the news portal, seeking filing of an FIR. “The said news is false and malicious seeking to character assassinate…our national general secretary Ram Madhav and sabotage successful electioneering efforts of the party,” Jaangsillung Gonmei, the state general secretary of the BJP in Nagaland, said in a statement.

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